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The danger here is that we'll see Google lessen its focus on the speed and efficiency of V8 and instead start falling back on NaCl in their own apps. We seem
by zmmmmm 15y ago
The danger here is that we'll see Google lessen its focus on the speed and efficiency of V8 and instead start falling back on NaCl in their own apps. We seem to be at a particularly dangerous juncture right now where all the major desktop OSes are running on x86 processors. Thus a scheme like NaCl can easily take off and then, once we are dependent on it, it can lock us in to specific processors and platforms instead of the dream of the web - running anything anywhere.
- yid 15y agoNot a problem -- if NaCl exceeds V8 in development, we just compile Javascript directly to NaCl (using tools that will certainly be devised).
- nitrogen 15y agoHow would precompiled JavaScript help? NaCl provides a subset of the processor's capabilities. V8 has access to everything, and is already compiling Javascript to native code. The only way you could exceed V8's performance is by writing a better JavaScript compiler than V8 -- no small task. Anything you can do with JavaScript-[as-yet-unwritten compiler]-NaCl, Google can do with JavaScript-V8-native code.
- cageface 15y agoUnlikely. First, thanks to mobile, x86 is far less dominant than it was even a few years ago. Second, Google can't afford to deliver a second-class experience to users not using Chrome. They don't have the kind of market share it would take to get away with that.
- nextparadigms 15y agoNaCl is supposed to work on ARM chips, too. I think you need like just a line of code to enable it for ARM machines. Google I/O 2011: Beyond JavaScript: Programming the Web with Native Client: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgbK0ztUkDM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgbK0ztUkDM
- ootachi 15y agoI don't know the particulars of how this is implemented, but you would either have to compile your code for ARM (adding an enormous burden to web development), or have all mobile browsers ship an x86 emulator (which is a massive step backwards).
- bzbarsky 15y agoGoogle has in fact announced that they will more or less stop V8 optimization work... Which is too bad, because V8 is nowhere close to as fast as JS engined will get.