On Fri, Feb 11, 2011 at 4:07 PM, Chris Heilmann <[email protected]> wrote: > > Yeah, I know how to sing pretty well. That doesn't make a good actor. > Different languages have different goals. JavaScript was made to be > interpreted in the browser - lightweight and fast. Other languages were > meant to be on a server. If I want to hire someone now to build me a great > web app I try to find someone who knows JavaScript, if we start adding more > compilers it becomes tougher again. It is hard enough to find people who > know JavaScript rather than just how to apply libraries. > > Browsers are big as they are right now - adding more compilers IMHO just > adds more complexity without much gain. >
I don't really agree. It's not singing versus acting, it's English versus French. The way to control a browser is not defined by the language it so happens to support. There's a fixed set of api's (DOM for example) for which only js api's have been exposed. But it's easy to create an abstract api for that and control them through other languages. Even if they simply compile their code and behavior to js. The main problem about Adrian's question is that you can support Python or Lua in one browser fine, but you'll have no guarantee that it's going to be supported by any other browser. That's where js currently has the upper hand; it has full cross browser support. So unless your building an app that's based on speed, I say build your app in any language you like just as long as there's a (decent) cross compiler to js for it. And lately I'm seeing plenty of those. Of course if speed is an issue, pure js is the way to go. Just as you'll always be able to beat js with c, and (almost) always beat c with asm. I do see a future where the browser exposes a set of abstract api's in an effective way so other languages can easily hook into them, whether it be through js or something else (maybe more efficient). - peter -- To view archived discussions from the original JSMentors Mailman list: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ To search via a non-Google archive, visit here: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]
