Re:Mozilla Research Projects
by cpeterso on Wednesday December 24, 2014 @02:59PM
(#8794310)
LLVM bytecode was not designed to be a universal bytecode; it still contains architecture-specific information for code generation.
How long would it take for Mozilla, Google, Apple, and Microsoft to standardize on a common bytecode and then write compatible implementations for x86, ARM, and other platforms? NaCL or PNaCL are contender bytecodes, but Google is the only browser vendor that is interested.
JS is a standard language that already exists, so asm.js is backwards compatible with browsers that were shipped even before asm.js existed. The arguments for a universal bytecode over asm.js are mostly about elegance and "Better is Better." asm.js is definitely "Worse is Better" design.
How long would it take for Mozilla, Google, Apple, and Microsoft to standardize on a common bytecode and then write compatible implementations for x86, ARM, and other platforms? NaCL or PNaCL are contender bytecodes, but Google is the only browser vendor that is interested.
JS is a standard language that already exists, so asm.js is backwards compatible with browsers that were shipped even before asm.js existed. The arguments for a universal bytecode over asm.js are mostly about elegance and "Better is Better." asm.js is definitely "Worse is Better" design.
http://mozakai.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-elusive-universal-we...