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If one of these hundred alternative languages that compiles to JavaScript takes off ( https://github.com/jashkenas/coffee-script/wiki/List-of-languages-that-com

If one of these hundred alternative languages that compiles to JavaScript takes off ( https://github.com/jashkenas/coffee-script/wiki/List-of-languages-that-compile-to-JS https://github.com/jashkenas/coffee-script/wiki/List-of-lang... ) AND has features that would benefit from a better underlying "assembly" language (like Dart from Google, Typescript from Microsoft, or asm.js from Mozilla), then I would say Javascript's days are either numbered, or it will finally adopt static typing, as was proposed a decade ago for JavaScript 2.0 or ES4 or whatever: http://www-archive.mozilla.org/js/language/js20-2000-07/libraries/types.html http://www-archive.mozilla.org/js/language/js20-2000-07/libr... http://www.webreference.com/programming/javascript/rg38/2.html http://www.webreference.com/programming/javascript/rg38/2.ht... http://www.ecmascript.org/es4/spec/overview.pdf http://www.ecmascript.org/es4/spec/overview.pdf

krapp 13y ago
But languages that compile to javascript still presuppose javascript.
- libria 13y ago
  Assuming they only ever compile to JS, yes. It's possible Microsoft could get buy-in from the IE team to run TypeScript natively. Dart already runs in a VM in a version of Chrome.
  - krapp 13y ago
    That's all well and good for that one browser. But that's the bleeding edge of the bleeding edge. For the sake of legacy code browser vendors would still have to support javascript natively for the indeterminate future as well. No one's going in and changing the umpteen million lines of extant javascript to Dart no matter how many browsers can run it or how semantically nice it is.