I agree with you that JavaScript has become an important target language for any language, allowing programs to run in browsers.
There are a couple of Scheme to JavaScript compilers: Scheme2JS, Spock and Gambit-JS. You might be interested in the following 2012 Scheme workshop paper that compares these implementations: http://users-cs.au.dk/danvy/sfp12/papers/thivierge-feeley-paper-sfp12.pdf Gambit actually has a “universal” backend which can target JavaScript, PHP, Python and Ruby. Those other languages are interesting for running Scheme in various ecosystems. For example, some web services limit their users to write web pages in PHP. Also, programs compiled with the universal backend can perform process migration between these languages. Marc > On Jan 30, 2015, at 6:48 PM, Blake McBride <[email protected]> wrote: > > Greetings, > > I noticed Bigloo has, or had, support for a JavaScript (JS) back-end at > www-sop.inria.fr/indes/scheme2js > > For a long time, I never understood the value of using JS as a back-end to a > compiler, or as a server-side language for many reason that I won't bore you > with. I recently "saw the light" and now believe that it may be one of the > most important languages and back-end targets. The main reason, in a word, > is politics. > > Java was a powerful front-end language that was killed, in large part, by > Microsoft. Then Java moved to the back-end where it flourished. Java was > used and supported by many companies including Google. Google made very > extensive use of Java, and even creating fantastic development tools such as > GWT. Google was highly committed to Java. > > Unfortunately, after Oracle bought Sun, Oracle sued Google over some aspect > of its Java usage. Since then, Google has started dropping their development > of Java tools and releasing them for public support. Google than started > creating their own alternative to Java called Dart, and they started focusing > on a language that was not controlled by any single company - JavaScript. > > Google created the ultra-fast V8 JavaScript engine. It is so fast that the > community created node so that JavaScript could be used on the back-end too. > (I wrote a back-end JS program that scans and parses data in 14,000 files in > 14,000 different directories in 47 seconds!! > > Node has a huge following and huge support. The tools available and being > developed for it are second to none. There are many languages that are now > using JS as their target. With node and a browser, you can now develop both > sides in one language (whatever the front-end language is) if it targets a JS > back-end. > > I have seen more than 10 lisp-like languages, including Bigloo, that compile > to JS. Languages are popping up everywhere. I have even seen Smalltalk with > a full, JS based IDE that functions beautifully ( amber-lang.net ). > > This brings me to the point of this message. Google is abandoning Java, and > we all know what happened to Flash (Apple politics). Even Microsoft seems to > be getting desperate with .NET/C#. JavaScript is fast becoming the only game > in town - largely because no individual company controls it. > > Google, with V8, has made JS a practical solution, and node has brought it to > the back-end with full force. > > Now, having said all this, I think having Bigloo provide a first-class > JavaScript back-end would be really, really wise and useful. The code it > produced would be useful on the back-end and the front-end. One language to > do both sides! > > Just sharing some thoughts. > > Blake McBride >
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