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Ruby and Java Running in JavaScript

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the fun-new-toys dept.

John Resig is reporting on his blog that a recent trip to Tokyo opened up some very interesting JavaScript projects to him that haven't met with widespread popularity outside of Japan yet. "One project, in particular, really caught my eye. It's called Orto and is an implementation of the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) in JavaScript. This means that you can take an existing Java application, compile it to bytecode, run it through Orto (which produces the JavaScript, and embed it in a web page. While it doesn't provide the full capabilities of most Java code it does provide enough to make for some interesting demos." In a separate post he also detailed how the HotRuby project is allowing a Ruby VM to run in a browser using JavaScript or even indirectly using ActionScript in Flash.

3 of 220 comments (clear)

  1. But... by Oxy+the+moron · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Does it run Linux? ;)

    In all seriousness, though... I'm struggling to see how this is truly beneficial. Aren't most pages already hopelessly clogged with mounds of JavaScript? Is it that difficult to expect a user to have a Java interpreter already installed when they visit the page such that having your Java "emulated" in JavsScript is the better solution?

    Just seems like a solution needing a problem to me.

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  2. Google Web Toolkit by mysqlrocks · · Score: 4, Interesting

    While not exactly the same thing, the Google Web Toolkit (GWT) lets you write your code in Java and then run it in the browser. The difference is that the GWT translates the Java into JavaScript instead of giving you a full JVM. I'm not sure what practical advantage having a full JVM gives you.

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    Bradley Holt
  3. Strange by graveyhead · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Seems odd to use languages that weren't really designed to be embedded in a browser. One of the nice things about Javascript in the past couple of years has been the great DOM support. Add a library like JQuery and you have full cross platform goodness and a sane way to write code. Getting Java or Ruby code to interact with the DOM seems like it would be a huge pain compared with JQuery.

    Why does everyone hate Javascript so? If you're going of cut-n-paste examples from the web yes it looks like an ugly language. Check out how the OO stuff works, or some JQuery code, and you'll be pleasantly surprised.

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