<story><title>On Asm.js</title><url>http://acko.net/blog/on-asmjs/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>safetydank</author><text>I feel like PNaCl is the technically superior approach - define a stable set of LLVM bytecode and build an interface to run it in the browser.  But the uptake is a problem, no other browser maker wants to adopt a big chunk of code controlled by Google, tailored to run optimally in Chrome.&lt;p&gt;So asm.js took a beeline - leveraging existing Javascript machinery for security&amp;#x2F;JIT and shoehorning a way to run executable LLVM on top of it.  The fact that it&amp;#x27;s Javascript is just a detail, a legacy of the days when one vendor (Netscape) was able to push through a standard for running code in the browser.&lt;p&gt;In today&amp;#x27;s fragmented browser landscape I find it hard to believe a consensus could be reached again. Most of the major browser makers (Google, Microsoft, Apple) have their own platform agenda to push - in that context asm.js&amp;#x27;s compatibility with existing Javascript engines gives it the best chance of adoption.&lt;p&gt;But I agree, the hoops that had to be jumped through are a damned shame.</text></comment>
<story><title>On Asm.js</title><url>http://acko.net/blog/on-asmjs/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>flohofwoe</author><text>What I miss in all those discussions regarding JS, asm.js and PNaCl is that the web is the best software distribution platform we have by a huge margin, this is really its overwhelming killer-feature. All the user needs is an URL. No &amp;quot;downloading&amp;quot;, no installation, no special user permissions, no app shops, no gate keepers, no walled gardens, and everything is automatically multi-OS and multi-CPU-architecture. The web as a runtime platform may not be ideal, but the web as a &amp;quot;software distribution platform&amp;quot; rocks. For this I&amp;#x27;m even happy to give up a few CPU cycles. And no platform should be tied to a specific language. The more choices there are, the better.</text></comment>