Nova: A JavaScript and WebAssembly engine written in Rust

It fails to differentiate between JavaScript engines, a core language implementation, and runtimes, an engine plus the useful parts needed for writing software (os, event loop etc.).

It lists engines like boa, duktape or Hermes as if they are the same thing as Node, Deno or Bun, but at the same time doesn't even mention SpiderMonkey, V8 or JavaScriptCore, as if realizing they are not actually in the same class.

I guess the snark wouldn't work as well if a chunk of the list gets eliminated by thinking about it.

Re: Nova: A JavaScript and WebAssembly engine written in Rust

#6

Post by dedicate » Thu, May 29, 2025, 4:16 PM UTC

Cache-friendly is nice, but honestly, are we at a point where that's the main bottleneck for most JS apps? Feels like every new runtime promises speed. What's the one thing Nova's gonna do that'll make everyone actually sit up and pay attention, beyond just benchmarks?

Re: Nova: A JavaScript and WebAssembly engine written in Rust

#7

Post by aapoalas » Thu, May 29, 2025, 4:17 PM UTC

Hi, main developer of Nova here if you want to ask any questions! I'm at a choir event for the rest of the week though, so my answers may tarry a bit.

Re: Nova: A JavaScript and WebAssembly engine written in Rust

#8

Post by aapoalas » Thu, May 29, 2025, 4:18 PM UTC

nine_k wrote: post #3

Uses "data-oriented design", so it's likely striving to be faster than other non-JIT runtimes by being more cache-friendly. Still at early stages, quite incomplete, not nearly ready for real use, AFAICT.

Hi, Nova dev here.

Yes, basically. And removing structural inheritance.

Re: Nova: A JavaScript and WebAssembly engine written in Rust

#9

Post by glutamate » Thu, May 29, 2025, 4:22 PM UTC

aapoalas wrote: post #7

Hi, main developer of Nova here if you want to ask any questions! I'm at a choir event for the rest of the week though, so my answers may tarry a bit.

This may be too early to ask, but are you targeting a near-v8 level of performance? Or more like quickjs or duktape?

Re: Nova: A JavaScript and WebAssembly engine written in Rust

#10

Post by Permik » Thu, May 29, 2025, 4:23 PM UTC

nine_k wrote: post #3

Uses "data-oriented design", so it's likely striving to be faster than other non-JIT runtimes by being more cache-friendly. Still at early stages, quite incomplete, not nearly ready for real use, AFAICT.

Essentially implementing JavaScript on top of the ECS architecture :D