3 ms·

What's the use case?

jasonjmcghee 11mo ago
Likely similar to something like https://github.com/mlua-rs/mlua https://github.com/mlua-rs/mlua - but wanting to execute javascript (instead of lua, and no static libs?) in the context of native rust. The alternative might be https://github.com/denoland/rusty_v8 https://github.com/denoland/rusty_v8 but without needing C++ V8. (this is the first I'm hearing of Boa)
- written-beyond 11mo ago
  This mad man had the courage to present BOA a rust project at JS Conf. The project had it's spotlight taken by Bun and Deno. I also think the project was progressing pretty slowly from what people were expecting.
  - afavour 11mo ago
    Bun and Deno are in totally different spaces to Boa IMO. Looks like Boa is comparable to QuickJS in the small embedded engine space.
    - nekevss 11mo ago
      Well the first two are runtimes built on top of JavaScriptCore and V8, respectively. So we're definitely in a different space. QuickJS/QuickJS-NG might be a better comparison, but I think they are limited in specification conformance or at least selective in specification conformance in favor of remaining in a single file and fast. For instance, I'm not entirely sure whether they will be supporting Temporal once it goes Stage 4 because of the size of the feature, and I don't think they support Intl. But I also can't speak for QuickJS.
    - written-beyond 11mo ago
      Doesn't matter, they were more exciting and relevant for Devs.
  - jasonjmcghee 11mo ago
    Seems pretty relevant- are JS Conf folks notoriously anti-rust or something?
    - written-beyond 11mo ago
      It was a notoriously rust heavy talk, I genuinely loved it.
- lblack00 11mo ago
  Correct me if I'm wrong, mlua is a set of bindings to interact with the Lua C API via FFI, not necessarily a Rust implementation. It (mlua) would be more similar to rusty_v8.
  - jasonjmcghee 11mo ago
    indeed, not pure rust / requires vendored lib, but i thought it might help explain the potential use case
mort96 11mo ago
There's typically a pretty big difference between an interpreter meant to be embeddable and one that's not. Trying to embed V8 and keep up with V8 API changes would be a huge amount of work. I could see myself using something like this instead of Lua for some projects where V8 would be too much. My first thought was that this could be interesting for yt-dlp?
jddj 11mo ago
JavaScript scripting by users inside frameworks / applications built in other languages. Similar to https://github.com/dop251/goja https://github.com/dop251/goja for Go or https://github.com/sebastienros/jint https://github.com/sebastienros/jint for .NET
Timothycquinn 11mo ago
There is a Rust based browser project ongoing that can use this (if its not already).

Likely similar to something like https://github.com/mlua-rs/mlua https://github.com/mlua-rs/mlua - but wanting to execute javascript (instead of lua, and no static libs?) in the context of native rust. The alternative might be https://github.com/denoland/rusty_v8 https://github.com/denoland/rusty_v8 but without needing C++ V8. (this is the first I'm hearing of Boa)

written-beyond 11mo ago
This mad man had the courage to present BOA a rust project at JS Conf. The project had it's spotlight taken by Bun and Deno. I also think the project was progressing pretty slowly from what people were expecting.
- afavour 11mo ago
  Bun and Deno are in totally different spaces to Boa IMO. Looks like Boa is comparable to QuickJS in the small embedded engine space.
  - nekevss 11mo ago
    Well the first two are runtimes built on top of JavaScriptCore and V8, respectively. So we're definitely in a different space. QuickJS/QuickJS-NG might be a better comparison, but I think they are limited in specification conformance or at least selective in specification conformance in favor of remaining in a single file and fast. For instance, I'm not entirely sure whether they will be supporting Temporal once it goes Stage 4 because of the size of the feature, and I don't think they support Intl. But I also can't speak for QuickJS.
  - written-beyond 11mo ago
    Doesn't matter, they were more exciting and relevant for Devs.
- jasonjmcghee 11mo ago
  Seems pretty relevant- are JS Conf folks notoriously anti-rust or something?
  - written-beyond 11mo ago
    It was a notoriously rust heavy talk, I genuinely loved it.
lblack00 11mo ago
Correct me if I'm wrong, mlua is a set of bindings to interact with the Lua C API via FFI, not necessarily a Rust implementation. It (mlua) would be more similar to rusty_v8.
- jasonjmcghee 11mo ago
  indeed, not pure rust / requires vendored lib, but i thought it might help explain the potential use case

mort96 11mo ago

There's typically a pretty big difference between an interpreter meant to be embeddable and one that's not. Trying to embed V8 and keep up with V8 API changes would be a huge amount of work. I could see myself using something like this instead of Lua for some projects where V8 would be too much. My first thought was that this could be interesting for yt-dlp?

jddj 11mo ago

JavaScript scripting by users inside frameworks / applications built in other languages. Similar to https://github.com/dop251/goja https://github.com/dop251/goja for Go or https://github.com/sebastienros/jint https://github.com/sebastienros/jint for .NET

Timothycquinn 11mo ago

There is a Rust based browser project ongoing that can use this (if its not already).