Why am I writing a JavaScript toolchain in Zig?
32 points by signa11 2 days ago | 19 comments
  • hu3 a day ago |
    Zig is becoming a strong ecosystem for JS/TS tooling.

    Not sure if it started with Bun but there's good momentum.

  • peutetre a day ago |
    You might as well solve the whole problem and just compile to WebAssembly. Cut out JavaScript now as much as possible now and eventually altogether.
    • ksec 21 hours ago |
      Does WebAssembly even have DOM access yet? Or in the next 2 - 3 years? There was a discussion about 1-2 years ago suggesting WebAssembly isn't here to replace JS hence access to DOM isn't even a priority.
  • lenkite 20 hours ago |
    The ECMAScript committee really need to address the core issues of JS performance - native integers, structs, linear layouts, stack allocation, SIMD, memory arenas, etc. Javascript should ideally be capable of superb performance for its own tools.
    • pjmlp 17 hours ago |
      JavaScript should stay confined to the browser, people are solving the wrong problem.
      • mu53 14 hours ago |
        JS is eating the world. You can fight it like so many people before, but you will lose like everyone else
        • pjmlp 13 hours ago |
          Until there are electricity bills from servers to pay.

          JavaScript on the server, only when I can't say no for whatever reason, like being forced to search for another job as consequence of it.

          Instead of rewriting JavaScript tools in Zig, Rust, Go, whatever cool compiled language of the month, use the said language directly.

          • pdimitar 12 hours ago |
            I believe all of Zig, Rust and Go have been around for long enough to not deserve the moniker "cool compiled language of the month" though.

            I do agree that it's time to write frontend not in JS. It has been time for 10+ years even but oh well.

            • pjmlp 10 hours ago |
              English reading compreehension problem, or feeling attacked?
              • pdimitar 10 hours ago |
                Needlessly provocative. Sounds more like you felt attacked.

                No reason for me to feel attacked, I pointed out that what you said doesn't make much sense in terms of how long have these languages been around.

                • pjmlp 10 hours ago |
                  On the contrary, apparently we are in a need of English lesson over here.

                  "Instead of rewriting JavaScript tools in Zig, Rust, Go, whatever cool compiled language of the month, use the said language directly."

                  Meaning use Zig instead of JavaScript, use Rust instead of JavaScript, use Go instead of JavaScript, use "whatever cool compiled language of the month" instead of JavaScript, or if you prefer for the last example, use "whatever compiled language takes your fancy" instead of JavaScript.

                  Clear enough?

                  • pdimitar 9 hours ago |
                    Would be clear if it did not seem to me that you are including three languages that have been around for a while in the "whatever cool compiled language of the month" group.

                    If not -- then clear. If yes, then this is getting even more confusing.

        • pdimitar 12 hours ago |
          You are not paying attention. WASM's ecosystem is moving slowly but surely in the direction of JS being thrown away for good. Ain't happening anytime soon -- sadly -- but especially with WIT used to specify various modules and collections of modules plus having more or less uniform function specification, the days of JS' monopoly are numbered. The writing is on the wall. There are successful WASM web apps not written in JS today.

          JS is being tolerated. Not adored.

          Frontenders are living in a bubble and don't see it.

        • vacuity 12 hours ago |
          Grandparent is making the case that it shouldn't have this role, which is independent of it having the role. It seems contrary to "the hacker spirit" to use the is-ought fallacy to discourage innovation. Is it wrong to have a contrary, if probably doomed to fail, stance to the mainstream? But of course a contrary idea would fail if everyone seeks the mainstream instead of it. To justify sticking to the mainstream, you have to weigh its costs against the benefits of the alternative too.
  • tacitusarc 12 hours ago |
    Please just don’t make the opinionated formatted use two space indentation. That is one of the craziest recent trends in the JS ecosystem.
    • azemetre 11 hours ago |
      Can you say what you’d prefer and why? I often use very large fonts, well large compared to my peers, when coding and really prefer tabs as I can define their width myself.
      • whs 10 hours ago |
        Not OP, but I also tabs. Usually I set tab to 4 spaces as 2 space is too little to clearly see the indentation, but in frontend projects usually I'd need to set it to 2 as otherwise the JSX layout would easily overflow horizontally. JS also prefer callback-style code that requires another indentation, which might not always be possible to replace with await.