Steven Yegge recently posted blogged about The Next Big Language. One could debate this to death, but I’ve got a pretty good hunch that the language he’s speaking of is ECMAScript 4. Why?

Within the time frame Steve proposes, 18-24 months, it’s got to be a language quite far along in definition right now, and likewise in implementation. ECMAScript 4 looks like it might beat PERL6 and Ruby 2 to being finalised. Adobe, Mozilla and Opera give the vibes that they may each have a full implementation coming shortly after that (or maybe even before). To cover the criteria given:

1. It’s got C-style syntax. A lot of potential NBLs fall on that including Haskell, Lua, Erlang, all the various LISP, BASIC or Smalltalk dialects etc.

2. Prototypes for highly dynamic code with late binding, classes for static type correctness with early binding. ECMAScript 4 fits and goes beyond the profile.

3. Adobe should have proven by now that ActionScript isn’t far from being as performant as Java.

4. JavaScript tools are weak, you think? Yeah, they are. Not necessarily compared to Python/PERL/Ruby, but compared to Java/C#. But they are rapidly becoming better. And remember, Visual Studio can be numbered among them.

5. Yup, it has the kitchen sink. It even gets so long as to provide several cross platform GUIs.

6. Mozilla on almost every desktop platform imaginable. Opera on a very large collection of desktop, console and mobile platforms. Rhino wherever Java can run. Can’t get much more multi-platform than that.

Frankly, I think Steve’s forgetting one thing in that list that works in favour of ECMAScript 4 though. Leverage of current user base and lock in. JavaScript has absolute monopoly on the web scripting side. ActionScript has monopoly on Flash. JavaScript is used not only in webpages, but also in powering features of the actual browser applications. Opera Widgets, Konfabulator (Yahoo! Widgets), Google Desktop Gadgets, Apple Dashboard Widgets, Microsoft Gadgets (Vista Sidebar). All powered by JavaScript. Windows Presentation Foundation Everywhere (WPF/E) is powered by XAML and JavaScript. SVG is scripted by JavaScript. Numerous Adobe products are scriptable with JavaScript, examples include Director, Acrobat and Photoshop. What interactivity can be found in PDF documents is provided by JavaScript. On the server side, we have ASP that can use JScript as it’s language and ASP.NET using JScript.NET. We have SSJS on Sun and RedHat servers, we have Apache Cocoon and several other uses of the Rhino engine by Apache. And we have JScript as an option in the Windows Script Host. On the application programming side we have JScript.NET+.NET APIs, Rhino+Java APIs, XUL+XBL+RDF+JavaScript, Flash. JavaScript isn’t going to lose users or uses, that is pretty certain.

I also think it’s pretty clear that JavaScript cannot be ousted from the web, it’s grip on web scripting is complete. Heck, Microsoft tried to displace it but failed with VBScript. Looking at PERL, Python, Ruby, TCL, not a single competing language has as solid a platform leverage. The only thing that has been holding JavaScript back from entering these other application areas in the past is, in fact, that it’s been too strongly associated with the web and the web alone. Developers have sneered down their noses at JavaScript. They won’t do that for long once ECMAScript 4 is unleashed, or if they do, they’ll soon find that the coming generations of developers don’t.

Current JavaScript is known to be slow, but in fact, that’s not really true. JavaScript performance is only a problem because of the lateness of all bindings, the lack of true arrays and true integers, runtime type checks, and eval/with. The rest depends on the hosting environment. These are areas that ECMAScript 4 tries to address.

Mozilla and Opera have made their dedication clear, so ECMAScript 4 in browsers is a certainity. Adobe too have made their dedication clear. Microsoft haven’t piped in yet, and that’s the only worry I have. JScript.NET is the biggest roadblock. No competitor has as few hurdles to get over. PERL6, for instance, doesn’t have much leverage on the user facing side at all. It’s my belief that ECMAScript 4 will take the step out of the browser box. ECMAScript 4 will be the Next Big Language.

Posted in Javascript |

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