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It would seem to me that your comment only really applies to C or C++ or other similar languages. Modern JavaScript compilers can compile and run code orders of
by bastawhiz 5y ago
It would seem to me that your comment only really applies to C or C++ or other similar languages. Modern JavaScript compilers can compile and run code orders of magnitude faster than what was possible fifteen years ago. Many languages have seen dramatic compiler improvements.
Maybe the problem is that making big improvements to a compiler for a fifty year old language that sits pretty close to the metal is getting increasingly difficult because the people writing the compilers are running out of clever tricks.
- codeflo 5y agoWith all respect, we're discussing an article about the difficulty of balancing performance and security in modern compilers in the context of implementing cryptographic primitives. You might use those primitives from JavaScript (Node.js links OpenSSL, for example), not typically implement them in JavaScript.
- bastawhiz 5y agoOne of the two compilers discussed in the article is Turbofan because the code in question is being invoked from JavaScript, so I'm not sure how you think JavaScript isn't relevant. We live in an age where not everything, including cryptography, needs to traverse C or C++ to reach machine code (see: Java, Go, etc). Plenty of JavaScript and WASM exists for cryptography purposes, for what it's worth, because Node isn't the only runtime and "native" code isn't easily portable.