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Comment by ChocolateGod | Hacker News Reader

I find it interesting not only that HarmonyOS is using a microkernel but also that its userland application language is compiled TypeScript.

https://developer.huawei.com/consumer/en/doc/harmonyos-guide...

I'd certainly be interested in benchmarks of running TypeScript via ArkTS vs transpiled JS in in V8.

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The thing I'd really like to see & try is DSoftBus. Theres a massive distributed computing toolkit built in to the OS, it does cross-device operations? That's supposedly integral to even regular apps? That's so neat.

Unfortunately the barrier to entry seems to be sending government identity to Huawei, and I'm not willing to do that to get access to their software development kits. There'a source available at least for the earlier OpenHarmony forks, but figuring out how to take all the pieces and weave together a working OS is probably quite complex & undocumented. Here's some kind of developer centric openEuler link, https://github.com/openeuler-mirror/dsoftbus_standard

There's been such a dearth of clear advancement for users in OSes, in IoT, in distributed computing. It looks like there's something super super cool here, but so far, that view has mostly been some 5 or 10 second clips amid product promos and demoes. .

Last time I checked it did use the Linux kernel alongside their own kernel. I might be wrong though, so take my statement with a grain of salt.

ArkTS compiles into Ark Bytecode, and there is JIT on the user's device. According to feedback from the developer community, ArkTS is slower than V8, but Huawei has incorporated a multi-threading model into it.

So it’s still full of Microsoft stack.

Typescript is open source. It is a benefit for Huawei to use a language that is deeply supported by Microsoft, so clients have an easier time transitioning between ecosystems.

Javascript devs really can't stop with being surprising.

So Windows is super slow, but no way this could be even slower? How can it be usable at all?

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