This week Jonathan chats with Nariman Jelveh about Puter! It’s the project that takes the idea of the Browser-as-the-OS seriously. Why did a simulated desktop on the web take off, what the story of making it Open Source, and what’s coming next? Watch to find out!
Did you know you can watch the live recording of the show right on our YouTube Channel? Have someone you’d like us to interview? Let us know, or have the guest contact us! Take a look at the schedule here.
Direct Download in DRM-free MP3.
If you’d rather read along, here’s the transcript for this week’s episode.
Theme music: “Newer Wave” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
Javascript is an even bigger shitshow then Python.
And that’s saying something.
For the longest time, you had no choice in the browser ghetto.
But today, JS should just die.
I don’t know who either of these clowns are.
If you know them, kick them square in the crotch for me.
Ideally I’d like to see webassembly get all the features JS has such as direct access to the DOM, that way we can finally bin JS for good, then you can just pick and choose which language to use then compile that down to webassem
That sounds awful.
No, I get it. JavaScript is terrible. It’s what would happen if you just kept adding to a barbie car until you could use it as your daily commuter vehicle.
But… the idea of an interpreted language for web scripting is just fine. WebAssembly is good when you want to do something in the browser that is far beyond typical web CRUD applications.
Compiled code is much slower to develop and debug. I don’t think needing to compile everything would be a positive change. It’s just not worth the hassle for most applications.
For a long time I hoped that the big browser companies or the standards organizations which they control would fix this situation with a new scripting language. Something that was designed to be a serious tool instead of a toy from the ground up. But they kept upgrading the barbie car instead. Well.. I have to admit, they have upgraded it a long way. It’s not so bad anymore so long as you ignore all the parts you would have used 20 years ago.
Of course using the new stuff means old, non-upgradable devices are all e-waste. And as they gradually continue to morph JavaScript into something less sucky.. more e-waste.
I’m changing my mind as I write this. Maybe relying on web assembly for everything would be a good approach. But I still wouldn’t want every script to have to be compiled. Maybe an interpreter running a sane scripting language could be built independently of the ECMA (who no doubt are working for the device manufacturers) and built to run in Web Assembly.
I heard a nasty rumor.
Coders that only know JS are using it server side.
Some are even claiming it’s a ‘systems language’.
Then there are the libraries…that reference obsolete versions of other libraries.
Because the whole ecosystem is full of infinite monkeys.
Even worse, absent Web assembly.
There were people so clueless they were compiling into JS.
Then using that on a GD server.
I expect the coders responsible to drown the next time it rains and they look up with mouths open.
Perfect metaphor. JS should be renamed into BCS, Barbie Car Scripting, and be over with the confusion that still has “Java” in the name.
Yah, nothing I said here about JS was intended to be taken as being against Jonathan Benett, Nariman Jelveh, or Puter. It’s not their fault that JS is what is universally available in the browser. I think those who would dream of ‘kicking them in the crotch’ ought to keep it to themselves.