Ask HN: Is JavaScript's Time Up?

12 points

11 years ago

The title is immediately deceiving, but I couldn't think of better wording for a title. Specifically, I mean to ask if Javascript as a language front-end (as compared to a compiler target) is coming to an end?

With tools like emscripten and js_of_ocaml, I can write C++, C, OCaml, Python, Java, Rust, Haskell, Objective-C, CIL (and any other language that compiles to LLVm bytecode[0]) and use that to power my browser scripting.

As we get closer to a Javascript as a bytecode, it seems like there may no longer be a need for Javascript the front-end. If I had to start a new app today, I think I might choose to do it in a unified language that either targets LLVM bytecode, or Javascript directly. In this way I could achieve unification of my server-side and browser-side code. Allow ease of maintenance, hiring, etc.

The only reason I can see actually "writing" Javascript continuing is in maintaining "legacy" code bases. Any thoughts?

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LLVM#Front_ends:_programming_language_support

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