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Of the three you mentioned, only Dart has potential to avoid JavaScript - the other two compile to JavaScript - which is exactly my point. JavaScript is a horrible choice of "assembly language". Google's NaCl also allows native code to run in the browser (sandboxed), so the only two technologies that allow avoiding JavaScript both come from Google. Currently, only NaCl actually works in a mainstream browser (Chrome), although I believe Dart will be there soon too.
Try asm.js - which (on Firefox at least) allows compiling C++ to JavaScript written in such a way that it optimises array-like access to become true C-like arrays (itself an insane idea) someone ported the Unreal engine to it and, while a technical feat, I'm not overly excited by the potential to run games (in a browser) on a modern PC with about the performance of I got from games about 5 years back.
As you said, if the W3C could form some kind of standard VM specification, then different languages could target that and optimise it aggressively - following techniques initially established for Self and late for JavaScript (V8) and other languages such as Java (HotSpot) and .NET. That would seem a vastly superior approach technically. Unfortunately, in the real world web standards seem to be reverting to the model used days of competition between Netscape and IE (that yielded JavaScript itself). Implement it and hope it gets adopted widely enough that it becomes a de facto standard. Part of the blame actually lies with the standards bodies, which just haven't moved fast enough, so vendors implement partially defined standards effectively forcing them to standardise what's out there on the ground.
I absolutely agree with respect to ECMA too - but I'd still rather have "standards" at least available so others can implement them (as has happened with Mono and .NET).
In many ways I can't help think that the Web could be so much better. A combination of CSS's awful layout algorithm, the choice of XML (actually SGML) for defining HTML combine to make web development a much less pleasurable experience than it could be. Once again, Alan Kay put it well in an interview with Dr Dobb's Journal. Paraphrasing, the interviewer said something like "You can't argue with the success of the web", Kay responded "actually I can". The interviewer raised Wikipedia, to which Kay responded that when you look up something like geometry it should actually be possible to interact with diagrams. If all that sounds a bit far-fetched, it is useful to remember that many of those kind of interactions were pioneered by Sutherland's Sketchpad all the way back in 1963, Engelbert's Mother of all Demos (1968) and, naturally, Smalltalk systems (1980).
Sadly, computing seems to be a very reactionary field, where true innovations typically take generations to reach mainstream, if ever.
(End rant)
"If you don't fail at least 90 percent of the time, you're not aiming high enough."
Alan Kay.
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Calling people who write code but aren’t employed as programmers “hobbyists” is offensive to some. They're "differently employed" programmers
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F'em.
I'm both a professional and a hobbyist. And proudly a member of the OpenVMS Hobbyist community as well.
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I am pure hobbyist programmer. I have never, nor will I ever code professionally. Sure I have made some money from it but that is only because one of my pet projects turned out to be useful to others.
Within you lies the power for good - Use it!
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Bah. People need to get over it.
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I prefer to think of it as being monetarily challenged!
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Caffeinated subjects better able to distinguish between similar items. Coffee. Is there anything it can't do?
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It's not really a contraceptive, is it? Other than being anti-beer goggles.
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Taking a stimulating every day, perhaps several times a day, does what again...
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In other news, Pope attends Mass
speramus in juniperus
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That would be news, I believe he normally officiates it.
"If you don't fail at least 90 percent of the time, you're not aiming high enough."
Alan Kay.
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Brendan Eich calls for security researchers across the globe to regularly audit the Firefox source code and create automated systems that can ensure the same code is used to update 18 million machines that run the browser. "You're our only hope"
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As Microsoft counts down toward the end of support for Windows XP on April 8, users still running the OS are getting a few more of their questions answered. "It's not dead, just done"
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This seems like a normal move by MS but it very well may be another stupid one.
After the 8 debacle I would lay low, be grateful for XP and it's continued use, get 9 out and then maybe kill xp. Not now though. They need to save face right now.
I was on a MS support site where I could "learn more" about the end of life of XP. I though "what could they teach me". It was a pitch about how today's pcs are faster sleeker today with windows 8.1 on 'em than they were 10 years ago.
That insults all our intelligence Microsoft. - Get a grip.
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In something as simple as a responsive web layout or iOS 7′s “Do Not Disturb” feature, we’re starting to see designs that are more perceptive about the real world context surrounding them.
Siri ain't got nothin' on Scarlett Johansson.
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British programmer posts daily screenshots of code shown in background of movies and TV shows and explains how accurate it is.
Apparently Tony Stark's original suit in "Iron Man" was running the source code of a 1998 programmable Lego brick. You can't (or I guess you can) make this stuff up.
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Ah, my bad. Didn't realize the blog had already been posted over in The Lounge. Thanks PIEBALD
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Registration for Microsoft's Build 2014 conference opens today. What's the pulse of Microsoft's developer community, going into the show? Silverlight. That's all I'm going to say. Silverlight.
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I can't help thinking that it's going to be too little too late. Muglia announced the rot and Sinofsky compounded it.
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As far as I'm concerned, W7 is the last OS from Microsoft that I will be using for a very, very long time.
And VS2008 will be the last IDE, except when I actually need something that only VS2012 with its UI provides. And in either case, I'm already looking into SharpDevelop to see if they support the latest F# features - everything else that I need out of an IDE appears to be there already.
So, if Microsoft wants to re-build my developer trust...
Marc
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Although I'm no fan of Metro, I have adopted Windows 8 - with a Start Menu replacement. I actually find it otherwise a better O/S.
Similarly later versions of Visual Studio - improvements to the .NET runtime and debugging (let alone C++ support) mean I would find it hard going back.
I hope you find the transition to a later version of Visual Studio less painful than you anticipate - you may just be pleasantly surprised.
"If you don't fail at least 90 percent of the time, you're not aiming high enough."
Alan Kay.
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Today, you need to teach yourself how to use GitHub. Tomorrow, GitHub might be doing the educating. Version Control for Dummies?
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Kent Sharkey wrote: Version Control for Dummies?
That would be a great idea, since GitHub and TFS are Dummies themselve, today.
Veni, vidi, caecus | Everything summarizes to Assembly code
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Android dominates market share but not yet developer wallets. This may be about to change. "On average, developers target 2.9 different platforms for mobile development." Wheee
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