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Show HN: Proof-of-concept Node.JS-like interface with iOS 7 JavaScriptCore

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Re: Show HN: Proof-of-concept Node.JS-like interface with iOS 7 JavaScriptCore

#4

Post by srijs »

zekenie wrote: post #3

Neat! Is the iOS 7 JavaScriptCore V8? It can't be, though right? Safari?

JavaScriptCore is a cross-platform javascript engine on it's own that is used by default in WebKit browsers (Safari, Mobile Safari, Konqueror, etc.).

The new thing on iOS 7 is that this framework is exposed as a public API you can code against. So you don't have to initialize a heavy-weight WebView just to execute Javascript.

Re: Show HN: Proof-of-concept Node.JS-like interface with iOS 7 JavaScriptCore

#5

Post by zw »

zekenie wrote: post #3

Neat! Is the iOS 7 JavaScriptCore V8? It can't be, though right? Safari?

Safari gets Nitro, Apple's JIT, but historically it has been unavailable to apps (via UIWebView) for security reasons. I'm unsure if the new Objective-C JavaScriptCore API gets Nitro.

Re: Show HN: Proof-of-concept Node.JS-like interface with iOS 7 JavaScriptCore

#8

Post by eddieh »

This is similar to something I've been wanting to do for quite some time. In contrast to your approach (binding JavaScriptCore at the Objective-C level) I want to start with the JavaScriptCore's command-line interpreter. It's currently a barebones interpreter. I would start by adding some missing primitives to the interpreter getting it closer to the V8 developer console (d8). Then work from there.

Good work though. It's nice to see that I'm not the only person that has thought about a Node-like system built on JSC rather than V8. I wonder if you looked at the source for both V8 and JSC, and then concluded JSC would be much nicer to work with? That's what I did initially.

I wish I had time to pitch in right now...

Re: Show HN: Proof-of-concept Node.JS-like interface with iOS 7 JavaScriptCore

#9

Post by robterrell »

zw wrote: post #5
zekenie wrote: post #3

Neat! Is the iOS 7 JavaScriptCore V8? It can't be, though right? Safari?

Safari gets Nitro, Apple's JIT, but historically it has been unavailable to apps (via UIWebView) for security reasons. I'm unsure if the new Objective-C JavaScriptCore API gets Nitro.

IIRC the JIT requires an entitlement that (so far) non-Apple apps can't get, even with iOS 7's JSC.

Re: Show HN: Proof-of-concept Node.JS-like interface with iOS 7 JavaScriptCore

#10

Post by srijs »

eddieh wrote: post #8

This is similar to something I've been wanting to do for quite some time. In contrast to your approach (binding JavaScriptCore at the Objective-C level) I want to start with the JavaScriptCore's command-line interpreter. It's currently a barebones interpreter. I would start by adding some missing primitives to the interpreter getting it closer to the V8 developer console (d8). Then work from there. Good work though.…

I did some evaluation a while ago about bundling a Javascript engine with mobile apps on iOS and concluded JSC was way easier to compile and integrate. This is in fact what e.g. Appcelerator Titanium does currently. However, this bundling results in huge binaries, which is not very nice for mobile platforms.

The thing that got me into hacking the prototype was the release of JSC as a public system framework on iOS7, eliminating the need to separately bundle JSC. So its not really a platform preference, I'm just trying to work with what's currently there...

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