Compile and Run C in JavaScript • Hacker News Board

Re: Compile and Run C in JavaScript

#11

Post by hiccuphippo » Thu, Sep 19, 2024, 2:41 AM UTC

gyutff wrote: post #7

Is this local js only or can you compile the c code and serve it to a client to execute in the browser?

It seems to be local only, but I would imagine they could add compilation to wasm in the future.

Re: Compile and Run C in JavaScript

#12

Post by NoahKAndrews » Thu, Sep 19, 2024, 4:23 AM UTC

candleknight wrote: post #4

Jarred wrote: post #2

This was an unplanned feature I worked on mostly a month ago on a Saturday for fun. Happy to answer any questions To get it out the door, ended up adding some patches to TinyCC to support .framework on macOS and fix a few things with dlopen and include paths. Also added support for parsing the deprecated attribute used in lots of Darwin headers. C parsers seem a lot simpler than JavaScript which is nice

Awesome work on this, it looks like a game changer! From my (admittedly limited) knowledge on this space, it seems like this is a straight upgrade over WASM, with the only limiting factor being that your stack is limited to Bun + C. Are there any downsides of this feature when compared with the alternatives mentioned at the start of the article? There are some tradeoffs listed at the bottom but I'm not sure how napi/…

NAPI and WASM let you use optimizing compilers, so they're suitable for use with larger C and C++ codebases

Re: Compile and Run C in JavaScript

#13

Post by pjmlp » Thu, Sep 19, 2024, 7:10 AM UTC

For me this looks like a solution for a problem that really isn't there.

Anyone that cares about compiling C code should be skilled enough to actually use the right tools in first place.

Re: Compile and Run C in JavaScript

#14

Post by maidh91 » Thu, Sep 19, 2024, 11:27 AM UTC

How fast it is when comparing to bare runtime?

https://github.com/holepunchto/bare-abort or https://github.com/holepunchto/bare-buffer

Re: Compile and Run C in JavaScript

#15

Post by spacedcowboy » Thu, Sep 19, 2024, 1:02 PM UTC

The Objj compiler is pretty similar to this in Cappuccino and you get (pretty much) Cocoa bundled with…

https://www.cappuccino.dev/

Re: Compile and Run C in JavaScript

#16

Post by pjmlp » Thu, Sep 19, 2024, 2:02 PM UTC

spacedcowboy wrote: post #15

The Objj compiler is pretty similar to this in Cappuccino and you get (pretty much) Cocoa bundled with… https://www.cappuccino.dev/

Uau is that still around?!

Re: Compile and Run C in JavaScript

#17

Post by tjelen » Thu, Sep 19, 2024, 2:09 PM UTC

pjmlp wrote: post #13

For me this looks like a solution for a problem that really isn't there. Anyone that cares about compiling C code should be skilled enough to actually use the right tools in first place.

I would say that the problem really is there. Dealing with native dependencies and addons was almost always a pain as the article describes (and not just from developer perspective), so anything that helps there is really appreciated.

Not sure what you mean by the right tools in this context.

Re: Compile and Run C in JavaScript

#18

Post by pjmlp » Thu, Sep 19, 2024, 3:11 PM UTC

tjelen wrote: post #17

pjmlp wrote: post #13

For me this looks like a solution for a problem that really isn't there. Anyone that cares about compiling C code should be skilled enough to actually use the right tools in first place.

I would say that the problem really is there. Dealing with native dependencies and addons was almost always a pain as the article describes (and not just from developer perspective), so anything that helps there is really appreciated. Not sure what you mean by the right tools in this context.

First of all, this is for C, and most extensions are written in C++ or Rust nowadays.

Secondly, the right tools are having Python, the C and C++ compiler, node-gyp and cmake.js installed, and actually understand how they work.

But what do I know, nowadays folks use C and C++ as scripting languages putting a full library into a single header file to avoid learning how to use the compiler and linker.

Re: Compile and Run C in JavaScript

#19

Post by solarkraft » Thu, Sep 19, 2024, 4:12 PM UTC

pjmlp wrote: post #18

tjelen wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would say that the problem really is there. Dealing with native dependencies and addons was almost always a pain as the article describes (and not just from developer perspective), so anything that helps there is really appreciated. Not sure what you mean by the right tools in this context.

First of all, this is for C, and most extensions are written in C++ or Rust nowadays. Secondly, the right tools are having Python, the C and C++ compiler, node-gyp and cmake.js installed, and actually understand how they work. But what do I know, nowadays folks use C and C++ as scripting languages putting a full library into a single header file to avoid learning how to use the compiler and linker.

I definitely want to avoid learning how to set up and use the compiler and linker when I just want to use some package.

Re: Compile and Run C in JavaScript

#20

Post by pjmlp » Thu, Sep 19, 2024, 4:45 PM UTC

solarkraft wrote: post #19

pjmlp wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First of all, this is for C, and most extensions are written in C++ or Rust nowadays. Secondly, the right tools are having Python, the C and C++ compiler, node-gyp and cmake.js installed, and actually understand how they work. But what do I know, nowadays folks use C and C++ as scripting languages putting a full library into a single header file to avoid learning how to use the compiler and linker.

I definitely want to avoid learning how to set up and use the compiler and linker when I just want to use some package.

Knowledge is empowering.