News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Ask: Why do web developers think the only applications people use are web apps?. Parent comment

Re:Ask: Why do web developers think the only applications pe... by rms on Wednesday September 19, 2007 @07:26PM (#57118)
Agreed, I think the dominance of the web is inevitable.

Kind of as an experiment and part out of not wanting to reformat my diseased hard drive, I spent about 3 months last year booting from a minimal Linux and running Firefox (and a pdf viewer) as my only apps. I really didn't miss the desktop a whole lot. In the end, the only reason I run desktop apps today is to take some load off of the browser. I like Meebo more than GAIM but the really intensive javascript apps just use way too much memory in Firefox, especially when you have 12 hour Firefox sessions.

I'm looking forward to my future web-only existence... and I'll be first in line for the neuro-implant.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask: Why do web developers think the only applications pe... by gwenhwyfaer on Wednesday September 19, 2007 @09:27PM (#57152)
> the really intensive javascript apps just use way too much memory in Firefox, especially when you have 12 hour Firefox sessions

I suspect that huge improvements in the state of Javascript interpreters will really start to change the equations. If JS is Lisp in disguise, there's no reason why JS engines can't start to benefit from the decades of evolution put into Common Lisp runtimes.

Come to think of it, what if a JS engine got fast enough that the browser itself could be written in Javascript?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask: Why do web developers think the only applications pe... by rms on Wednesday September 19, 2007 @09:31PM (#57155)
For now, we're getting some nice incremental improvements. Firefox 3 Alpha is worth using just for the improved JS engine.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask: Why do web developers think the only applications pe... by AF on Wednesday September 19, 2007 @11:33PM (#57221)
Hey gwen...what do you mean by this: "If JS is Lisp in disguise"?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask: Why do web developers think the only applications pe... by mcxx on Thursday September 20, 2007 @04:55AM (#57323)
Well, look at parenscript for example. It's quite easy to translate Lisp into JS. Moreover, the first prototype of JS engine in Firefox was written in Lisp.
[ Parent | on HN ]