JavaScript is conquering the world!

Any application that can be written in JavaScript, will eventually be written in JavaScript.

- Atwood's Law, 2007

 

Two years ago I blogged The future smells like JavaScript. Where do we stand today?

This post lists my favourite examples that demonstrate impressively the power of JavaScript.

 

Cloud 9: A complete IDE written in JavaScript:

It’s funny, Adam Bien talked in 2008 in his session "Designing The Boundary - Rich UI Meets Efficient Java EE Backend” about desktop- vs. web-applications. IDEs were his canonical example for desktop applications that will never be replaced by web applications. Yet here we, are looking at Cloud 9:

And there are plenty alternatives, most noteworthy Visual Studio Online (Project Monaco) by Microsoft. But there are also codenvy, code anywhere, eclipse orion and others.

 

Unreal Engine 4

While not yet publicly available, Epic Games and Mozilla have ported the Unreal Engine 4 to the web and it’s running nearly at native speed:

Office Replacements

Google Docs and  Microsoft Office Online are probably the most popular examples how traditional desktop applications are replaced by web applications. Another impressive one is Lucid Charts:

 

Rather playful examples of the power of JavaScript are the following emulations:

JSLinux: A PC emulator in JavaScript running Linux

http://bellard.org/jslinux/

 

 

Doppio: A JVM implemented in JavaScript 

http://plasma-umass.github.io/doppio/

 

PCE.js: a Mac Plus emulator running Mac OS System 7

http://jamesfriend.com.au/pce-js/