Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

My gripes with JavaScript

ironjs.wordpress.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 48 posts

Re: My gripes with JavaScript

#4

Post by billybob »

There seems to be agreement that Javascript is a messy language which is popular by default: it was included in Netscape, then other browsers picked it up. Now we're stuck with it.

I realize this would be very difficult and introduce horrible compatibility issues for a while, but sometimes I think, "what if we could start over?" What if Chrome and Firefox started supporting Python or Ruby or a custom, well-designed language for web scripting? Could it gain enough momentum to replace Javascript?

Actually, the easiest candidate would be for browsers to start natively supporting Coffeescript. But imagine a "dream team" designing a language just for the web, from scratch: Douglas Crockford, John Resig, Guido van Rossum, Yukihiro Matsumoto...

Is this a "it's crazy but it just might work" scenario, or is it just crazy?

Re: My gripes with JavaScript

#5

Post by protomyth »

billybob wrote: post #4

There seems to be agreement that Javascript is a messy language which is popular by default: it was included in Netscape, then other browsers picked it up. Now we're stuck with it. I realize this would be very difficult and introduce horrible compatibility issues for a while, but sometimes I think, "what if we could start over?" What if Chrome and Firefox started supporting Python or Ruby or a custom, well-designed l…

If we started over, we should pick a VM, not a language.

Re: My gripes with JavaScript

#6

Post by fholm »

mrspeaker wrote: post #2

I'm sure you'll be happy to know that all your gripes are de-griped in js.next ( http://wiki.ecmascript.org/doku.php?id=harmony:harmony - and strawman) - and with the speed of browser upgrades they'll hopefully be here the "reasonably close" future. Hopefully.

I'm well aware of js.next/harmony/whateveryouwannacallit. Come back to me in 10 years when it's implemented everywhere and everyone that was on an old version of browser X has upgraded to one with those features.

Re: My gripes with JavaScript

#7

Post by fholm »

billybob wrote: post #4

There seems to be agreement that Javascript is a messy language which is popular by default: it was included in Netscape, then other browsers picked it up. Now we're stuck with it. I realize this would be very difficult and introduce horrible compatibility issues for a while, but sometimes I think, "what if we could start over?" What if Chrome and Firefox started supporting Python or Ruby or a custom, well-designed l…

I would not consider that a dream team considering the languages/libraries they have produced.

Re: My gripes with JavaScript

#8

Post by vmind »

protomyth wrote: post #5
billybob wrote: post #4

There seems to be agreement that Javascript is a messy language which is popular by default: it was included in Netscape, then other browsers picked it up. Now we're stuck with it. I realize this would be very difficult and introduce horrible compatibility issues for a while, but sometimes I think, "what if we could start over?" What if Chrome and Firefox started supporting Python or Ruby or a custom, well-designed l…

If we started over, we should pick a VM, not a language.

Some kind of flexible bytecode implemented across browsers would be fantastic, and you could always implement a fallback interpreter in javascript (or if feeling fancy, a decompiler).

Re: My gripes with JavaScript

#10

Post by olavk »

fholm wrote: post #6
mrspeaker wrote: post #2

I'm sure you'll be happy to know that all your gripes are de-griped in js.next ( http://wiki.ecmascript.org/doku.php?id=harmony:harmony - and strawman) - and with the speed of browser upgrades they'll hopefully be here the "reasonably close" future. Hopefully.

I'm well aware of js.next/harmony/whateveryouwannacallit. Come back to me in 10 years when it's implemented everywhere and everyone that was on an old version of browser X has upgraded to one with those features.

Or use a tool that compiles js.next to lowest-common-denominator-javascript.
Post reply on HN