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Kickstarter: Make a Better CoffeeScript Compiler

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Re: Kickstarter: Make a Better CoffeeScript Compiler

#3

Post by gren »

I like CoffeeScript but I see it as a temporary language providing cool syntax features on top of Javascript.

no offense but IMHO, we should focus on releasing the next Javascript and make it possible instead of writing better CoffeeScript compilers.

Re: Kickstarter: Make a Better CoffeeScript Compiler

#4

Post by drcode »

One feature that would be helpful is support for the Google Closure Compiler's "Advanced Mode" in the generated javascript (coffeescript right now stumbles with the property renaming, especially when destructuring is used) I wish I could run this powerful "whole program optimizer" against my coffeescript code.

Re: Kickstarter: Make a Better CoffeeScript Compiler

#6

Post by evincarofautumn »

I have this hope, however irrational, that compilers and similar projects become more common on Kickstarter. This is currently the only search result for “compiler”, which feels…wrong, somehow. If I’m not doing anything else this summer, I might just put up a language project and see if I don’t get laughed off the stage.

Of course, it’s hard to offer good “prizes” (or whatever—Kickstarter doesn’t seem to have a term for them) for a project that of right ought to be free and open. This guy had the good sense to offer services, but I could see an “enterprise” edition working out as well.

Re: Kickstarter: Make a Better CoffeeScript Compiler

#7

Post by TrevorBurnham »

I'm pledging $1,000 to this. As the author of the PragProg book on CoffeeScript (http://pragprog.com/book/tbcoffee/coffeescript), I have a stake in making CoffeeScript a more mainstream tool, and I believe that Michael's project will greatly advance this cause.

The use of CoffeeScript has become fairly widespread at startups (GitHub, 37signals, many YC alums...) but not in larger enterprises. One reason for this is that debugging CoffeeScript requires a "hacker mentality": compile-time errors are often reported with minimal or misleading explanations (e.g. "Unexpected ," when there is no comma on the line, but rather an implicit comma from whitespace); run-time errors have to be manually traced from the compiled JS to the original CoffeeScript.

These flaws are likely to be ameliorated gradually (Jeremy has stated that Source Map support is the primary goal for CoffeeScript 1.4), but this project could improve the debugging situation dramatically in a matter of months. I hope the CoffeeScript community will lend Michael their support.

Re: Kickstarter: Make a Better CoffeeScript Compiler

#8

Post by evincarofautumn »

hzy wrote: post #2

I don't really see the benefits of this over the existing compiler. The changes sounds like they could be merged into the existing compiler as command line arguments with relative ease.

The author seems to believe that a complete rewrite is necessary to address fundamental design issues with the existing compiler. I don’t know much about CoffeeScript or its internals, but since he’s worked significantly on it, I’m inclined to trust his judgement.

Re: Kickstarter: Make a Better CoffeeScript Compiler

#10

Post by krelian »

Someone capable of writing this kind of software will earn much more than $3000 per month at a full time job. I understand that this is probably not a for-profit project but if the guy can dedicate 4 full time months to this than he:

1) Can work full time 2) Needs the money

Why not find a regular programming job that will pay you much more?He is obviously skilled enough to be hired.

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