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Help us raise $200k to free JavaScript from Oracle

deno.com

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Re: Help us raise $200k to free JavaScript from Oracle

#182

The name "JavaScript" was silly to begin with, just a way to make the buzzword "Java" more popular. Let's call it WebScript and move on.

Kinda the other way around right? Java was a popular language at the time so Brendan Eich picked that as part of the name to make his new language more popular.

Re: Help us raise $200k to free JavaScript from Oracle

#183
post #13

I can't be the only one who believes the name JavaScript should die in Peace. It was and still is the worst naming of any popular programming language in existence.

Apparently the codename for the prototype language was "Mocha", infinitely better! Even the release name "LiveScript" is much better. They switched for cynical marketing reasons, riding the "Java" hype, and to flaunt their partnership with Sun. Well, it did make some kind of sense at the time when the scope was much smaller. They had this rough idea of an interpreted lightweight companion to Java, back when lots of b…

We should call it UnTypedScript

Re: Help us raise $200k to free JavaScript from Oracle

#184
post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And why would anyone do something good for someone else without an ulterior motive? It feels nice. You should try it sometime.

YeAh bUt fe3lin g0od is n ulTerIor m0t!ve!! A st0!c s4g3 flz nutHing

I'm not going to argue that feeling good is an "ulterior" motive, but it can be a malicious one. People can convince themselves, with varying degree of consciousness, that what they are doing is good, and ignorantly feel good about doing that, whereas for other parties what the person did can be the opposite, bad.

Re: Help us raise $200k to free JavaScript from Oracle

#186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That feels like cutting off your nose to spite your face. You can be in favor insofar as it's a public service and otherwise disregard.

Everyone in here jumping to the conclusion that if you say something against the PR shit deno has done. To instantly sucking off Oracle and burning JavaScript flags in the garden. They literally brought it on to themselves and now they want you to pay for it. It's "the last chance" because they made it the last chance. That should be thing discussed in here. A company abusing their reach (60k for the petition) preten…

Yeah, it's hard for this to feel like a community endeavor when it's a single company deciding to act on behalf of the community while never taking input or building a consensus around the issue with said community.

Hard to not be cynical about the whole thing, especially when it's a private VC backed company doing this and not say the OpenJS Foundation.

Re: Help us raise $200k to free JavaScript from Oracle

#187

The name "JavaScript" was silly to begin with, just a way to make the buzzword "Java" more popular. Let's call it WebScript and move on.

Kinda the other way around right? Java was a popular language at the time so Brendan Eich picked that as part of the name to make his new language more popular.

Maybe. However, he wouldn't have been allowed to choose the name "JavaScript" if Netscape and Sun hadn't been in a business partnership. So my point is still valid. It was just a random ride on the Java wave.

Re: Help us raise $200k to free JavaScript from Oracle

#188

I don't get the hate here. This is practically a public service and Deno doesn't have any direct or obvious material gains from this. Definitely not more then dozens of other projects (from Chrome to Node.js to Tutorial sites and any company offering something with JS) So what if they are a VC backed company? If you perform a public service, it's fair to ask the public for money. No one is suggesting this money would…

It's PR. First the petition and now this fundraiser. Sorry but it feels more like a stunt than anything sincere otherwise they would front the money. They certainly have the funds for it.

Getting into a legal battle with oracle would be an incredibly expensive PR effort, especially as they filed and started the process without donations.

$200k is absolutely not going to come close to covering their legal fees possibly in any scenario but definitely if Oracle tries to drag out the process.

Re: Help us raise $200k to free JavaScript from Oracle

#189

I don't get the hate here. This is practically a public service and Deno doesn't have any direct or obvious material gains from this. Definitely not more then dozens of other projects (from Chrome to Node.js to Tutorial sites and any company offering something with JS) So what if they are a VC backed company? If you perform a public service, it's fair to ask the public for money. No one is suggesting this money would…

"So what if they are a VC-backed company?"

Why do they need to ask for money from the public if they are VC-backed?

Assuming that the Deno Land Inc. company would benefit from protection from Oracle's trademark

As a member of the public I see no "material gains" from "freeing Javascript from Oracle"

But I may be biased. I do not use Javascript and avoid others' use of it as best I can. I use a different object-oriented, garbage-collected scripting language with C-like syntax that is faster than JS, and faster than Lua (not LuaJIT)

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