D for the web?

[Marco Leise]

Am 23.01.2012, 17:21 Uhr, schrieb Trass3r <un at known.com>:

> Just discovered this LLVM-to-Javascript translator:  
> http://emscripten.org/
> Looks really interesting, they even converted CPython.
>
> Might be interesting for D as well.
> Question is how the low-level stuff in druntime would work out.

I've seen that a while ago. I wrote the visualizer (or replay viewer) for  
aichallenge.org and had to cover an applet for older IEs, a HTML 5 version  
for standards complient browsers and an standalone application. Back then  
I decided to write the viewer in JavaScript and use a Java JavaScript  
engine (Rhino from Mozilla) to wrap it into a cross-platform desktop  
application and an applet all at once. Quite literally even, since the JAR  
file worked as an applet and standalone application.

In parallel I made my first steps with D2 and when the CTFE regex came  
out, I wondered if DMD could compile my JavaScript to native code.

Then I found emscripten and that opens a whole new alternative: To write  
the viewer in Python/C/D and let emscripten generate JavaScript. There is  
even a version of Gtk (and Cairo?) running in JavaScript, so the graphics  
should not be a problem either. Once the converter is rock solid, it is  
definitely easier to run unit tests with a native application, than it is  
with JavaScript, especially with its lack of strong typing. It is a  
scripting language after all.