Google App Engine launched this week and one controversial aspect was that it only works for Python. It wasn’t a big deal to me. Firstly, it’s a good way for Google to limit the initial market. Secondly, Google specialises in Python and not Ruby – quoth Yegge: “One of the fences in this big playground is your choice of programming language. You have to play inside the fence defined by C++, Java, Python, and JavaScript.” After all, Google has Guido but not Matz or DHH. (I wonder how many times someone has asked that guy if he’d consider a position at Google!) Thirdly, who cares? Do you really think it will stay Python-only for long? Heavens to Murgatroyd!!!
Dion’s take (read his post for the full detail):
Anyway, I have a dream and surprisingly it doesn’t involve Ruby and unsurprisingly it does involve the magic bullet that is server-side Javascript.
How cool would it be if Google bought Aptana or AppJet – or did their own work with Jaxer or Rhino – and made a robust, elastic, server-side Javascript platform? Then roll in Rhino and Rails, hopefully reworked from Rails considerably to take into account the synergies delivered by dual-side Javascript. Backed by BigTable of course!
That’s the tipping point right there!
Hoorah for Aptana Cloud // Apr 28, 2008 at 11:09 pm
[...] Hakman got in contact with me after the Javascript Grid article and kindly offered to let me review the beta, which is still on the cards, so I’ll let you [...]
Meeting with Aptana’s Kevin Hakman // Apr 9, 2009 at 10:54 pm
[...] readers of this blog will know I am a big fan of Javascript on the server. Through its Jaxer project, Aptana has been at the forefront of the server-side [...]
I’m a big fan of javascript for the sole reason that it seems to be the one constant factor amongst all the perpetual fanboi drivel (ahem! “language wars”).
The adoption of Javascript by every single system with an installed browser, and the ubiquity of the browser itself, is a testament to the staying power of crappy technologies. All hail mediocre technologies!
Seriously though the continual improvement in browsers (and JS), to me, is the one hope for escape from this perpetual nightmare people call “flavor of the month” involving languages, IDEs, frameworks (updates to old ones, and release of new ones), libraries, platform portability (or lack therefore), compiler magik, etc. that has plagued IT for decades.
Here is to a future where Javascript will emerge victorious over all other languages! (much like nuetral sweden in a nuclear apocalypse)
Then we can put a stake through the proverbial heart of Javascript, burn it the corpse, scatter the ashes, and proceed to something better.
[inserts rant]