Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Why Atwood's Law is a Good Thing

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

Jeff Atwood proposed this simple rule way back in 2007. Now, as his predictions come true, we may find ourselves asking "why would anyone want to do such a crazy thing?" Well here are three simple reasons:

1: Because we can!
Software development is an art that requires practice. Why do college students write compilers? Why did John Carmack port Rage to iOS? Why did I port Chrono Trigger to a graphing calculator? Software engineers are artisans, these challenges represent our art form at it's best.

2: JavaScript represents true platform independence.
Windows, Mac, Linux, x86, x64, iOS, Android, the list goes on; frankly, there are just too many platforms out there to develop for. The beauty of JavaScript is that it is a universally recognized spec that is supported everywhere. This level of accessibility is advantageous for developers and consumers alike.

3: It shows the power of modern technology.
The fact that we can run a Java Virtual Machine in the browser shows just how far modern browsers and house hold hardware have come. It was only a few years ago that Virtual Machines were a concept reserved for only the most powerful of server farms. The tower of Dubia was not built out of necessity, it instead stands as a monument to human achievement; that is how I view emulator hardware in a browser, a virtual monument of human engineering.

...also, why wouldn't you want to play NES games in your browser?

Tom

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