We don't need Python in the Browser.
We need a VM SPEC for the browser, so we can have whatever language we damned well please in the browser.
Why Google decided to go with Dart rather than publish a VM spec is beyond me.
We need a VM SPEC for the browser, so we can have whatever language we damned well please in the browser.
Why Google decided to go with Dart rather than publish a VM spec is beyond me.
If you really want a VM, it already exists. It's called JavaScript, assembly language of the web.
I would hate for sites to start saying, "Requires the PyJSVM v0.8 or better to function, download it now!"
EDIT: in hindsight, this post was careless. I was wrong about the "PyJSVM" point, and I posted the minutewithbrendan link to provide commentary, not "Eich said it, so it must be true."
What I should have said:
JavaScript is so widely used today, that anything that comes along purporting to be better (such as bytecode, Dart, whatever) must be so much better as to provide a clear reason for developers and users. If it's just "better", then JS will remain dominant because it's good enough. Therefore, it makes sense to target JS from other langs. It's definitely not getting slower, and we're on the cusp of some great APIs!
Viewing source is a non-sequitor: the source code could be streamed down with the bytecode.
Standardizing a bytecode is no harder than standardizing a language and DOM, in fact, should be easier.
Versioning bytecode is no harder than versioning languages.
Bytecode does not imply an implementation any more than a language does, although it can imply semantics.
And then, at the end, he basically advocates a JS-specific bytecode. Hah. Oh, but they aren't working on it in committee. That says about all you need to know.
There is nothing about a bytecode spec that harder than a language and language spec.
Basically, he doesn't want any competition for Javascript. That was an incredibly weak podcast and he should have been shredded for it. People cut this guy way too much slack.
C'mon.
I look at Flash, which I used to develop in (this is not meant to be a comment on Flash itself). There are amazing people out there doing amazing things, but because the source isn't right there, a blog post with code snippets is mandatory. Whereas with JS you can typically learn something even if it's obfuscated (to an extent).
WTF is that? The whole point is that you'd target the bytecode standard. This would be just like targeting javascript today, but it wouldn't require hacks to deal with the broken aspects of javascript and maybe tools like cliend-side debugging would be useful.
It doesn't have anything to do with individual VMs per language.