![]() And one of Dart's high-profile features is that it supported static typing.ĭynamic typing is slower because a browser element called the just-in-time (JIT) compiler-which converts a programmer's JavaScript into the instructions a computer understands-must account for all the possible types a variable could be, said Brian Hackett, the lead type inference programmer, in a blog post. ![]() Traditional heavy-duty languages such as C or Java, though, use statically typed variables whose nature must be declared in advance by the programmer.ĭynamic typing adds flexibility, but it slows down program execution. JavaScript is dynamically typed, which means that a variable can hold any sort of information. Type inference gets to the heart of a fundamental divide between programming languages: the nature of variables that store information such as numbers or text. That version of Mozilla's browser is currently in beta testing, slated to arrive before by very early 2012. One potentially major change coming to JavaScript execution is taking place at Mozilla through a feature called type inference that's built into the upcoming Firefox 9. These Web applications look more and more like the applications we run on our desktops." "Today, there are Web applications with a million lines of JavaScript. By 2008, leading-edge Web applications like Hotmail, Gmail, and CNN.com included hundreds of thousands of lines of JavaScript," said the Microsoft JavaScript team members, Shanku Niyogi, Amanda Silver, John Montgomery, Luke Hoban, and Steve Lucco. "In 1998, a complex JavaScript application was a few dozen lines of code. Now, despite plenty of rough patches, JavaScript is shouldering ever-heavier burdens. Many expected Java to be the language that added interactivity to the Web, but JavaScript instead won that place. Its standardization, under the trademark-free name ECMAscript, has ensured many more than Netscape and its Mozilla descendant get a say in its development. ![]() It arrived in Netscape Navigator 2.0, the dominant browser of the day, and has steadily spread in sophistication and popularity since. "I did the prototype for JavaScript in 10 days," Eich said in a history of JavaScript talk in 2010. Its name notwithstanding, JavaScript isn't actually related to Java, the Sun Microsystems language just becoming popular in the mid-1990s, though Sun co-founder Bill Joy supported JavaScript as an easy-to-use companion to Java, said language creator and Mozilla Chief Technology Officer Brendan Eich. JavaScript began as a project at Netscape, back before Internet Explorer defeated it in the first browser war of the 1990s. Such factors mean a virtuous cycle of steady improvement that makes it harder for a more revolutionary approach to gain a foothold.Īnd there are more improvements on the way-from Microsoft, from Mozilla, and yes, from Google itself, which continues to improve its JavaScript technology even as it preaches the gospel of Dart. Programmers are familiar with it, newer browsers are remarkably faster at running it, and many libraries of pre-written software such as jQuery make powerful features easily accessible to Web developers. JavaScript has the classic benefits of an incumbent technology. In addition, Microsoft remains influential with programmers, and it just offered a very public vote of no confidence. Microsoft's stance makes it look like it'll be very hard to build that support into Internet Explorer. And allies are key: For Dart to live up to its potential, it needs support among browser makers. In a blog post yesterday, though, Microsoft said that improving JavaScript is the way to go.įive members of Microsoft's JavaScript team said the Dart sales pitch argues "JavaScript has fundamental flaws, and to support these scenarios requires a 'clean break' from JavaScript.We disagree with this point of view."ĭart got off to a rough start, with Google alienating some potential allies with an insular early-stage development process. Google hopes Dart will address shortcomings in JavaScript, the programming language that endows Web sites with some brains. Google hopes to better the Web with Dart, but Microsoft has declared itself an opponent of the programming language rather than a potentially valuable ally.
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