2 ms·

But why, what is the upside vs. just transpiling like the dozens of languages that already do?

• jerf 12y ago
  Why are you asking as if it's some sort of theoretical question when asm.js is in hand, right now, and it performs wildly better than raw Javascript? Of course we'd rather compile to something that's faster than Javascript than compile to Javascript. (Sorry, I can't condone the word "transpile". Usage of it just reveals someone who doesn't understand compilation technology and thinks there's somehow something "special" about compiling to one intermediate language ("javascript") vs. another ("assembler").) I can't believe how many people seem to believe that Javascript is a C-speed level language, and downmod anyone who observes it's not. Well, it's still not. It's easy to see that it's not. It's not even close. If it were asm.js wouldn't exist. (I mean, if you're having trouble with my claim here, stop and think about that for a moment... if Javascript is so fast, why does asm.js even exist?)