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Comment by edtechdev | Hacker News Reader

The main thing stopping me from using Dart is the same thing as Java and Python and others. It isn't designed to compile in the browser. You have to use the command line or an IDE. I have no problems with those myself, but the apps I am interested in involve letting end users create their own apps/animations/simulations, etc. If they went forward with a Dart VM in the browser, that would be great, but it sounds like that was one of the first things they abandoned.

There are so many other languages that do compile in the browser and can be used without relying on command line tools that there's no reason to pay any attention to dart at all, even though I like everything else about dart: https://github.com/jashkenas/coffeescript/wiki/List-of-langu...

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Yes, when Dart was still recently released I fully expected at least Chrome of all browsers to directly support it, and with it being an open source project, it to perhaps even trickle out to other browsers as well.

And I saw a Dart-powered web, and it was beautiful. Calling it a Javascript killer is a misnomer, because it's a Javascript eviscerator.

Now Typescript is here in full force and I honestly think that, assuming the language isn't going to be browser supported, that this is a better idea. :/ Simply because TS is a superscript over JS, so developers can migrate their projects over time. Regardless how much of it is still in JS, that is per definition also TS.

I think that is a huge boon, along with Typescript definition files to TS:ify libraries without having to restort to what the Dart guys seem to have been forced into doing with full reimplementations (DQuery, Bootjack, ... rather than simply downloading the appropriate files from DefinitelyTyped.org).

It's too bad, because _conceptually_ I like Dart more! Everything is so coherent regardless if it's on the client or the server, and modern HTML5 features are suddenly just libraries in the language itself! I really like it, I don't even have to "want" to like it, I already do. Kind of annoying. :P

I'm not sure what distinction you're making between Dart and languages that "compile in the browser". You linked to Jeremy Ashkenas' list of languages which compile to Javascript, yet that list includes Java, Python, and even Dart

Edit: Are you referring to languages that you can compile to Javascript by including a script in the HTML? I remember doing this with React, before I set up a build tool to my project. If that's what you're referring to, I'm not sure it's such a huge factor. For one thing, I am not aware of any technical reasons why Dart can't do this as well. For another thing, I don't think compiling in the browser is all that popular. Most front-end developers have embraced build tools like Gulp, Grunt, and Webpack which allow compile to Javascript. Compiling in the browser is also not as performant.

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