Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by magnio 962 days ago
Dart was made by Google as a new language for the web. In the beginning, it was already quite different from JavaScript at the time, and crucially the main way to use it is through the Dart VM (that was embedded into a build of Chromium). It did have compilation to JS, but AFAIK never caught on. In the end, Dart diverges from JS so much so that the split in ecosystem means it's not viable for the web anymore.

TypeScript, on the other hand, has always set its goal to be a superset of JS and to transpile to JS only. This means a more familiar syntax, as well as (practical, IMO) design choices that ensure higher compatibility with the existing JS ecosystem. There is no TypeScript without JavaScript. Its development coincided with that of VSCode, and arguably is one the main facilitators for the latter's feasibility.

I have to say Microsoft's grand plan of VSCode and TypeScript has to be one of the most astonishing software revolution in this decade. The foresight and acuity of Erich Gamma and Anders Hejlsberg is just amazing.
1 comments
damagednoob 962 days ago
I can't think of anyone besides Anders Hejlsberg that has a better track record with programming language innovation. At least 3 different languages that have all been commercially successful.
link
tialaramex 961 days ago
It's tricky to compare. Anders is involved in a bunch of important stuff, but it's not as though it's all successes either. He's certainly important, but I don't know how to compare "track records" on "innovation" because that's so vague.

One of his projects at Microsoft was J++ which is basically own-brand Java. Doubtless that's great material for learning to design C# but nobody is going to claim J++ was a success.

link
pjmlp 961 days ago
Only because Sun's lawsuit, several C# features were already present in J++ as the extensions that caused the lawsuit in first place.

VM integration with host OS, J/Direct (P/Invoke), events, COM integration, WFC (Windows Forms).

link
otteromkram 961 days ago
Dennis Richie[0] and/or Ken Thompson[1] might be of interest.

[0]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Ritchie

[1]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Thompson

link