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Espruino is a JavaScript interpreter for low-power Microcontrollers. This site is both a support community for Espruino and a place to share what you are working on.
@allObjects
@user70843, what is the thing that makes you shudder?
All languages - if deemed economically viable - have now a days an extremely elaborate runtime environment... for example: object oriented support, memory management, garbage collection, communication subsystems, etc...
Success or failure of a language (and all the related things) - simply put 'a tool' - is based on the adoption of the runtime environments, development environments, management environments, and most importantly the acceptance of the related requirements / prerequisites by users and industries.
Many decades ago users would swear by card punching, batch processing and serial files (...oh my dear tape drive)... all this new stuff, like transaction monitors, online / dialog applications, VSAM, and hell-no SQL databases... is just the downfall of IT.
After complacent IT humanity adopted and got well with this 'new stuff' (and batch managers retired... disgruntled or lucky not to have to learn and adopt new things), a new threat came:
Virtual Machines for running languages... starting with - to just name a few - Simula, CSP (Cross System Product - application compiled into some 'byte-code' running on any mainframe OS and even batch unchanged), Smalltalk, xyz-Basic, Java - and many pre-dating flavors from various manufacturers - all these were now the new target of the woes, performance concerns, etc... Btw, performance includes 'time to market' time... and thus the perfectly implemented and running app may just come onto the market too late... and will die perfectly fast its death.
Above I mentioned ...adoption by the users... when you have in your organization not enough what ever programmers, you look at the market for supply... and if not found, you reconsider what ever and you may migrate to what else.
Same goes for this: If you have your what ever personal on board and they know your business, but too bad or too lucky, they know C# and there is no blocker (and it is not declared illegal to use it)... you get your next app done in C#... (just to tease you a bit)... After all, it is your business that counts (or pays your what ever personal's pay checks). The means are just what means means: means.
Over time, all these things are part of decisions and have an impact on what direction IT is heading to.
@Gordon made an extremely valuable contribution to and great enablement of IoT for all! Any one that can grasp - or knows already by trade - (some) JavaScript will get (almost) all the benefit as if coding down to the bare metal... (This is btw the first time - in my life - I use the meaningless wording 'trust me' ... but in this case, I feel pretty comfortable to do so: t... m., doing bare metal programming aeons ago when MC processors were as simple as being lord over one to a few KB of code and had 'half a timer', one serial at best, a couple interrupts... was great pain... already with only a few peripherals and appliances. Even though some Tiny Basic(s) existed - for example on the CDP1802 and Z8 - and still do, there is just no way you could do what is possible with Espruino and focus on the application part as opposed to get the MC even going...). Not talking about managing (deep) sleep or other nice things which are crucial to IoT.
There is nothing as solid, robust, and advanced as Espruino is. Nothing comes even close... many have tried... some died already in their first (kickstarter) attempt,... T.....
I use - with joy AND pride - the wheels @Gordon provides me... and some wheels I built myself - the ones that stood the test of the time - and just 'drive on'. Part of being a giant is being able to stand on shoulders of giants... C is for sure a giant... and C is the enabler of the Espruino JavaScript layer, a giant that makes IoT as Easy as 1, 2, 3.
PS: Your car understands CAN (BUS), and how the data / information got there does not matter... may be it is an Espruino that controls - creates the control data for - your air conditioning system... So next time your air conditioning system helps you to stay cool, mutter a thanks and keep on cool driving... ;-)
Btw, I like fan kids - girls or boys... If you cannot be a fan of something, how much life is in you!... A fish is fan of the water, we are a bit more fan of the air... but that makes life colorful and interesting... and we can learn from each other. Only an insider can share both - the weaknesses and strengths..., and we are proud to celebrate the strengths!