3 ms·

This engine restricts JS in all of the ways I wished I could restrict the language back when I was working on JSC. You can’t restrict JS that way on the web be

This engine restricts JS in all of the ways I wished I could restrict the language back when I was working on JSC. You can’t restrict JS that way on the web because of compatibility. But I totally buy that restricting it this way for embedded systems will result in something that sparks joy

groundzeros2015 10mo ago
He already has a JS engine which doesn’t make these restrictions
- pizlonator 10mo ago
  Yeah QuickJS is great. I bet MQJS will also be very popular. Quite impressive that bro is going to have two JS engines to brag about in addition to a lot of other very useful things!
  - alexdowad 10mo ago
    > Quite impressive... Yes, quite! Monsieur Bellard is a legend of computer programming. It would be hard to think of another programmer whose body of public work is more impressive than FB. Unfortunate that he doesn't seem to write publicly about how he thinks about software. I've never seen him as a guest on any podcast either. I have long wondered who the "Charlie Gordon" who seems to collaborate with him on everything is. Googling the name brings up a young ballet dancer from England, but I doubt that's the person in question.
    - Uehreka 10mo ago
      > It would be hard to think of another programmer whose body of public work is more impressive than FB. Not many, but these do come to mind: Linus Torvalds, Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Donald Knuth, Rob Pike. But yeah, it’s rarefied air up there.
      - rramadass 10mo ago
        These are greats in their own domains. But Fabrice Bellard's greatness lies in breadth and depth in varied domains. That is what makes him unique. See also - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46372370 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46372370
    - rramadass 10mo ago
      > It would be hard to think of another programmer whose body of public work is more impressive than FB. I am of the firm belief that "Monsieur Fabrice Bellard" is not one person but a group of programmers writing under this nom de plume like "Nicolas Bourbaki" was in Mathematics ;-) I don't know of any other programmer who has similar breadth and depth in so many varied domains. Just look at his website - https://bellard.org/ https://bellard.org/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabrice_Bellard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabrice_Bellard No self-aggrandizing stuff etc. but only tech. He is an ideal for all of us to strive for. Watson's comment on how Sherlock Holmes made him feel can be rephrased in this context as; "I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours [i.e. fellow programmers], but I was [and am] always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings with [the works of Fabrice Bellard]." PS: Fabrice Bellard: Portrait of a Super-Productive Programmer - https://web.archive.org/web/20210128085300/https://smartbear.com/blog/test-and-monitor/fabrice-bellard-portrait-of-a-super-productive-pro/ https://web.archive.org/web/20210128085300/https://smartbear... PPS: Fabrice Bellard: A Computer Science Pioneer - https://www.scribd.com/document/511765517/Fabrice-Bellard-Interview https://www.scribd.com/document/511765517/Fabrice-Bellard-In... (pretty good long article)
      - lioeters 10mo ago
        The last link has more info than I've seen elsewhere. Here's an altenative link with PDF download. https://www.ipaidia.gr/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/117-2020-fabrice-bellard.pdf https://www.ipaidia.gr/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/117-2020-f...
        rramadass 10mo ago
        Thanks. Post it to HN since i don't think most folks know of this. It would be a shame to have it be buried in the comments.
      - TimTheTinker 10mo ago
        There are a few others that are at least somewhat comparable. Justine Tunney comes to mind (especially the Cosmopolitan family of projects).
    - virtualwhys 10mo ago
      It would be odd, but that name does ring a bell, Charlie Gordon is the central character in the ever poignant, Flowers for Algernon. Maybe Bellard identifies with the genius, but fears the loss of it.
    - larodi 10mo ago
      He totally deserves this ACM award which still waits to be awarded.
    - dotandimet 10mo ago
      In the QuickJS github repo there are commits from Charlie Gordon's github profile, https://github.com/chqrlie https://github.com/chqrlie
jacobp100 10mo ago
Since you’re on the topic, what ever happened to the multi threading stuff you were doing on JSC? Did it stop when you left Apple? Is the code still in JSC or did it get taken out?
- pizlonator 10mo ago
  I never really started on it other than writing up how to do it
- achierius 10mo ago
  Which multi-threading are you talking about?
  - sophiebits 10mo ago
    https://webkit.org/blog/7846/concurrent-javascript-it-can-work/ https://webkit.org/blog/7846/concurrent-javascript-it-can-wo...
andai 10mo ago
> You can’t restrict JS that way on the web because of compatibility. Well, now we can run this thing in WASM and get, I imagine, sane runtime errors :)

groundzeros2015 10mo ago

He already has a JS engine which doesn’t make these restrictions

pizlonator 10mo ago
Yeah QuickJS is great. I bet MQJS will also be very popular. Quite impressive that bro is going to have two JS engines to brag about in addition to a lot of other very useful things!
- alexdowad 10mo ago
  > Quite impressive... Yes, quite! Monsieur Bellard is a legend of computer programming. It would be hard to think of another programmer whose body of public work is more impressive than FB. Unfortunate that he doesn't seem to write publicly about how he thinks about software. I've never seen him as a guest on any podcast either. I have long wondered who the "Charlie Gordon" who seems to collaborate with him on everything is. Googling the name brings up a young ballet dancer from England, but I doubt that's the person in question.
  - Uehreka 10mo ago
    > It would be hard to think of another programmer whose body of public work is more impressive than FB. Not many, but these do come to mind: Linus Torvalds, Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Donald Knuth, Rob Pike. But yeah, it’s rarefied air up there.
    - rramadass 10mo ago
      These are greats in their own domains. But Fabrice Bellard's greatness lies in breadth and depth in varied domains. That is what makes him unique. See also - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46372370 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46372370
  - rramadass 10mo ago
    > It would be hard to think of another programmer whose body of public work is more impressive than FB. I am of the firm belief that "Monsieur Fabrice Bellard" is not one person but a group of programmers writing under this nom de plume like "Nicolas Bourbaki" was in Mathematics ;-) I don't know of any other programmer who has similar breadth and depth in so many varied domains. Just look at his website - https://bellard.org/ https://bellard.org/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabrice_Bellard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabrice_Bellard No self-aggrandizing stuff etc. but only tech. He is an ideal for all of us to strive for. Watson's comment on how Sherlock Holmes made him feel can be rephrased in this context as; "I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours [i.e. fellow programmers], but I was [and am] always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings with [the works of Fabrice Bellard]." PS: Fabrice Bellard: Portrait of a Super-Productive Programmer - https://web.archive.org/web/20210128085300/https://smartbear.com/blog/test-and-monitor/fabrice-bellard-portrait-of-a-super-productive-pro/ https://web.archive.org/web/20210128085300/https://smartbear... PPS: Fabrice Bellard: A Computer Science Pioneer - https://www.scribd.com/document/511765517/Fabrice-Bellard-Interview https://www.scribd.com/document/511765517/Fabrice-Bellard-In... (pretty good long article)
    - lioeters 10mo ago
      The last link has more info than I've seen elsewhere. Here's an altenative link with PDF download. https://www.ipaidia.gr/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/117-2020-fabrice-bellard.pdf https://www.ipaidia.gr/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/117-2020-f...
      - rramadass 10mo ago
        Thanks. Post it to HN since i don't think most folks know of this. It would be a shame to have it be buried in the comments.
    - TimTheTinker 10mo ago
      There are a few others that are at least somewhat comparable. Justine Tunney comes to mind (especially the Cosmopolitan family of projects).
  - virtualwhys 10mo ago
    It would be odd, but that name does ring a bell, Charlie Gordon is the central character in the ever poignant, Flowers for Algernon. Maybe Bellard identifies with the genius, but fears the loss of it.
  - larodi 10mo ago
    He totally deserves this ACM award which still waits to be awarded.
  - dotandimet 10mo ago
    In the QuickJS github repo there are commits from Charlie Gordon's github profile, https://github.com/chqrlie https://github.com/chqrlie

jacobp100 10mo ago

Since you’re on the topic, what ever happened to the multi threading stuff you were doing on JSC? Did it stop when you left Apple? Is the code still in JSC or did it get taken out?

pizlonator 10mo ago
I never really started on it other than writing up how to do it
achierius 10mo ago
Which multi-threading are you talking about?
- sophiebits 10mo ago
  https://webkit.org/blog/7846/concurrent-javascript-it-can-work/ https://webkit.org/blog/7846/concurrent-javascript-it-can-wo...

andai 10mo ago

> You can’t restrict JS that way on the web because of compatibility. Well, now we can run this thing in WASM and get, I imagine, sane runtime errors :)