5 ms·
This is kind of cool, but who is going to digest all of it? The techno folks may have some technology pieces working, but nobody out in the main world would be
by tmikew 17y ago
This is kind of cool, but who is going to digest all of it? The techno folks may have some technology pieces working, but nobody out in the main world would be able to figure it out. I got a little dizzy just looking at all the links to all the pieces in just this one article. Let alone actually reading them all.
I like Java script but I think making it go server side is backwards. Why not make Python or Perl or Ruby go client side instead? (I am sure plenty of folks smarter than me have already thought about and probably worked on it.) Those languages already have all the parts they need except a connection to the browser dom. Java script has a connection to the dom and practically nothing else. These other languages have been getting tweaked for years on the server side. It just seems like such a big byte to get Java script to work as a regular language like the others. It also ignores some of the things that are lurking like Erlang and Clojure. It sounds correct that there are lots of Java script programmers. However are there lots of Java script only programmers? I doubt it. While it is compelling to write one language every where, I dream about it sometimes, we aren't close yet.
So embedding the Perl, or whatever, interpreter into the browser is probably a chore, but it is also probably doable, the browser should be able to deal with multiple languages. I think it is just that the people that are capable of doing that job looked at it and said. "Crap! I will just learn Java script." So the reality in my mind is that programming in two or three or four languages is just easier than doing all that other work. Everybody does it. In fact we say I know Java, or Python, or Java script, but that is just a word to give us a frame of reference when we communicate with each other. In fact what we really know is how to program computers and Python is a subset of the total global programming skill that I have. It is a like speaking English in some specific domain. There is jargon everywhere, one can speak English but one tends to get easily lost if one listens to lawyers speak to each other or doctors, and one is also not a doctor or a lawyer. Does that mean we should create a generalized English that both doctors and lawyers can use in each of their specific domains? Seems a little silly when one thinks about it. Is making Java script work everywhere is really buying all that much?
- sant0sk1 17y agoGoing the other direction (moving server-side languages into the browser) is simply not feasible with the current rate of browser development and adoption. It would be at least 5 years with a concentrated effort to accomplish such a task.
- mahmud 17y agoPlay with the TCL plugin for IE or Firefox. That thing is a winner. (NB: last tried in 2004, IIRC)
- tmikew 17y agoI agree that the effort is large, and the browser platforms are constantly in motion. I was mostly just musing about it. My gut feeling is that getting Java script up to speed on the server side is just as much if not more work. Look at how much work has gone into the tools just for Java for example. Years. Before I get flamed, I will say that I am not bothered at all that some folks are willing to take up the effort to do it anyway. That is how things get done. I am just wondering about it.
- boucher 17y agoDisagree. Every month we're seeing a new "X to JavaScript" compiler, and increasingly they are being written natively in JavaScript.
- baxter 17y agoJavaScript is a beautiful language with much more to it than just the DOM API. You seem to suggest that this is JavaScript's only strength. In fact it could be argued that the DOM API is the single greatest problem with JavaScript in the browser[1]. It's true that different languages have different problem domains for which they are well suited. I would say that projects such as Node.js[2] prove that JavaScript has applications outside of the browser. [1] http://fishbowl.pastiche.org/2009/02/20/the_dom_stigma/ http://fishbowl.pastiche.org/2009/02/20/the_dom_stigma/ [2] http://nodejs.org/ http://nodejs.org/
- edd 17y agoOne quick note: its "JavaScript" one word, no spaces. Java and JavaScript are two very different languages putting a space there would only infinitely confuse everyone even more. "Java is to JavaScript as ham is to hamster" - http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/07/29/misunderstanding-markup-xhtml-2-comic-strip/ http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/07/29/misunderstanding-...
- kamau 17y agoMS has made huge strides toward this w/Silverlight. You can run C# directly in the browser, and last I looked (admittedly some time ago), the performance trumped JS in the browser by several orders of magnitude.