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OK, so Mozilla will be going to Rust in release 54. Does this mean that the organization that had bequeathed to the world the wonder that is JavaScript (/s) is now moving on completely to Rust? Will it be that someone writing a webpage for Firefox will no longer have to deal with JavaScript and can now just work in Rust?
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Huh... ohh
Nice title.  Tricked me, was expecting this post to be saying something very different.
Doesn't look like it's intended to be a client-side language any-time soon. It's slow to compile for starters and is intended as a systems language. Ever heard of someone writing client-side webpage logic in C or C++? Yeah, course not - me either.
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enhzflep wrote: Ever heard of someone writing client-side webpage logic in C or C++? Yeah, course not - me either.
Once upon a time, it was fairly common; they were called ActiveX controls.
David A. Gray
Delivering Solutions for the Ages, One Problem at a Time
Interpreting the Fundamental Principle of Tabular Reporting
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Touché, oh wow that takes me back - I'd forgotten all about those little beasts.
Cheers
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It will soon be common again; it will be called Web Assembly.
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Those aren't the same animal, because they are written in JScript and compiled in place in the browser. Conversely, ActiveX controls were compiled, linked, and signed before they became part of a page.
David A. Gray
Delivering Solutions for the Ages, One Problem at a Time
Interpreting the Fundamental Principle of Tabular Reporting
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You may be thinking of asm.js, which is just a (very) strict subset of javascript. Web Assembly, on the other hand, is exactly what you talked about: a portable binary format that is compiled on the developer's machine prior to deployment. The server will serve the portable binary to the client. No client-side compilation.
And the first language the working group is targeting isn't js, it's C/C++.
Here's some more info[^]
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Thanks much for the clarification. Since I was under the impression that it targets applications that are extremely CPU bound, I haven't paid that much attention to WebAssembly. That, coupled with a recent news item that mentioned something about Edge being tweaked for WebAssembly led me to believe that it was intended to be compiled to something like bytecode (as are, for instance, Java and C#).
The additional information you sent clarified many things, but it didn't dispel my impression that it will require some kind of run-time support in a Web browser. Given the spotty record for things that claimed to allow you to write once, and run anywhere, I'll be watching closely, and keeping my tin foil hat handy.
David A. Gray
Delivering Solutions for the Ages, One Problem at a Time
Interpreting the Fundamental Principle of Tabular Reporting
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I think I would have gone with the compiled vs interpreted point, but to each their own.
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."
- Benjamin Disraeli
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No. Rust is a backend language and is being used to replace some components that were written in C/C++. This actually started back in FF48[^]; but at the time you could compile the browser using prebuilt binaries instead of having to compile the Rust code directly.
The really big step is coming in FF57; when Project Quantum[^] will be swapping out several major components of the browser with replacements from their experimental all Rust browser project/dog fooding exercise (servo).
The reason it's such a big deal is what's generally refered to outside of official channels as the addon apocalypse. Legacy FF addons can touch virtually all of the browsers internal APIs; making a component swapout with a different API nearly impossible and generally making any sort of refactoring a PITA. As a result the plan [^] has been to only support a flavor of web-extensions and a theming engine that's more capable than the current one from FF57 forward. The problem is that until very recently their web-extension implementation has been buggier than an ant farm, leaving even developers who are willing to port over and whose extensions fall in the limits of the new API haven't been able to do so; and exactly how/to what extent additional APIs beyond the set copied from Chrome will be available is still unknown.
It doesn't help that due to all the delays in getting the new APIs working and huge number of addons that won't be ported either because they can't or because their author has abandoned them mean a big chunk of the FF addon community that hasn't ragequit are convinced Mozilla will back down. Meanwhile they've been consistently adamant that Quantums date is not going to shift.
Got popcorn? 
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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I thought this was interesting:
With the release of version 14.4.0.20, Syncfusion no longer develops for the following platforms: LightSwitch, Silverlight, Windows Phone and WinRT.
Marc
Latest Article - Merkle Trees
Learning to code with python is like learning to swim with those little arm floaties. It gives you undeserved confidence and will eventually drown you. - DangerBunny
Artificial intelligence is the only remedy for natural stupidity. - CDP1802
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Marc Clifton wrote: I thought this was interesting:
Ummm... why? All 4 are dead ends... right?
In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. ~ Ronald Reagan
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Mike Mullikin wrote: All 4 are dead ends... right?
Yes, but see it explicitly stated like that was, well, a breath of fresh air! 
Marc
Latest Article - Merkle Trees
Learning to code with python is like learning to swim with those little arm floaties. It gives you undeserved confidence and will eventually drown you. - DangerBunny
Artificial intelligence is the only remedy for natural stupidity. - CDP1802
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They do indeed.
This space for rent
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Ah, but like with the C64, there will still be three web-sites dedicated to fans who still code for silverlight, winphone, etc.
I actually think that that's rather nice.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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CodeProject, the MSDN forums. Nope, I'm not getting a third site.
This space for rent
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You have to dig deep into the dark web!
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Are Right Whales ever wrong? And what happened to the Left Whales?
On the other hand, you have different fingers. - Steven Wright
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They left. Without getting their coats.
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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I guess not because all the one's that are wrong are gone or left the sea.
Bryian Tan
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Left whales are just right whales that are upside-down, which by ones viewpoint are all right whales on the opposite side of the world.
But alas when you go to the other side to see them, they go to the other other side.
In this we are subject to a defining trait of left whales: they are very shy.
The first question: "are right whales ever wrong?"
it's rumoured to be a secret kept by the left whales.
Obvious solution: Instruct the office intern to find a left whale, teach it how to communicate, then ask it that question.
Sin tack
the any key okay
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TonyManso wrote: what happened to the Left Whales
THey went south to make new wales.
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Save the whales!
I'm gonna build a wall around my cubical and make Mexico pay for it!
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