This week’s post discusses an article on CNet.com entitled, “Google debuts Dart, a JavaScript alternative” by Stephen Shankland, a CNet news writer with a focus on technology and products. Google offered an early inside look at their new programming language and stated that they hope the new programming language will “help Web application programmers overcome shortcomings of JavaScript.”
Lars Bak is the programmer and project leader for “Dart” and says it is “geared for everything from small, unstructured projects to large, complicated efforts.” It includes open-source tools, samples, and tutorials for software writing. Google has released Dart for outside feedback and participation and is currently experimenting with the best way to integrate Dart into its Chrome Browser.
With Dart’s design, Bak aims to: create a structured, yet flexible programming language make Dart’s programming language natural and easy to learn for programmers. He also wants to ensure high performance and maintain a wide range of structure types for projects of any size.
Shankland’s post acknowledges the fact that introducing a new programming language is tough, but highlights the shortcomings of today’s Web programming that he wishes to remedy. Programmers, employees, and enthusiasts speculated on whether or not Bak was trying to replace JavaScript. In response, Bak said, “I’m not going to replace JavaScript. JavaScript is a cornerstone of the Web today, and it will continue to be for a long, long time.” Additionally he stated, “If we want to focus on making the Web better over time, we have to innovate.”
How do you feel about Dart? Any experience with it? We would love to hear about it.
