Infrequently Noted

Alex Russell on browsers, standards, and the process of progress.

JS everywhere

I often refer to JavaScript as "the trojan horse of languages". You think you're getting a browser or another type of programming tool (Java, .NET, Windows), but what you''re unwittingly getting is also a JavaScript interpreter. The practical upshot of this is that JavaScript is probably the world's most widely deployed scripting language. Ever. I think it probably beats Forth (which is shipped in every Mac and Sun BIOS).

Well, now when you get a JotSpot, you're also getting a JS interpreter too.

If you haven't ever taken a look at JS the language (and not the browser bindings that most people are used to), this is a great way to experiment with it in an environment where there's a rich set of bindings to the wiki (jot.lib) and e4x enabled by default.