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+1. I wish they used Lua instead of Javascript -- maybe using Lua.vm.js[1], although the VM in a VM thing may be a challenge to integrate with the rest of IDE, sprite editor, etc.

[1] https://daurnimator.github.io/lua.vm.js/lua.vm.js.html

I think it would be interesting to have some kind of linter/formatter built in the editor that restricts JS to its basic imperative subset.

What's an alternative that doesn't make massive sacrifices to the feature set?

I think Lua is a wodnerful langauge, highly embedable, great feature set/style, quite fast, really lightweight. Pico-8 had it right in everything but the license.

Everything compiles to JS these days, so it is an easy lowest common denominator.

Lua is a semantically cleaner alternative but it has relatively less mindshare and hence less third-party support.

>Everything compiles to JS these days, so it is an easy lowest common denominator.

That's not even remotely true. JS is only a common denominator for running code in a browser, but the lowest common denominator is still C/C++ and Java, even with native applications vs. Electron.

Shh don't burst the web dev's bubble