From: David Vallner <david@...>
Date: 2006-02-09T06:40:08+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby in Browsers?

Dňa Streda 08 Február 2006 11:13 Michal Suchanek napísal:
> On 2/7/06, Gregory Seidman <gsslist+ruby@anthropohedron.net> wrote:
> > The biggest problem with JavaScript is incompatible APIs across browsers.
> > Adding Ruby to the mix would only make cross-browser compatibility more
> > difficult. Unless you could magically get everyone out there to
> > simultaneously switch to a browser that provided client-side Ruby
> > scripting in exactly the same way, it would only add to the mess.
> >
> > If you really want client-side Ruby, start working on a
> > Ruby-to-ActionScript (or Flash bytecode) compiler.
>
> That would be a great step back in compatibility. While you can
> compile Mozilla or Konqueror for almost any platform you choose, and
> both support JavaScript, the support for Flash is much worse.
> Flash is a proprietary technology, and the binary plugin to interpret
> it is available  only for a handful of platforms. You can use it on OS
> X, win32, possibly win64 and wince, and x86 Linux. It is quite likely
> it will work in emulation on x86 NetBSD or x86_64 Linux. But GNU/Linux
> on ppc, mips, alpha, Solaris on anything, or any other OS is quite
> hopeless.
> There is a free flash player in which next to nothing works, and I am
> not even sure it works as a browser plugin.
> I do not know waht is ActionScript. The situation with Java plugin is
> similar except Sun makes a version for Solaris as well.
>
> So I do not see any cross-platform browser scripting other than JavaScript.
>
> Thanks
>
> Michal
>

Personally, I'd murder if I could get away with either an Applet or Flash more 
often. The proprietary bit -is- a pain, but at least you get something of a 
consistent interface instead of the godawful mess of browser inconsistencies 
that are out there. Admittedly less than there used to be, but you can and 
should still expect bugs with basic issues even when you have to support IE6, 
which happily selectively ignores W3C standards with reckless abandon. The 
less-than-easy-reading browser documentation doesn't really help either. And 
don't even get me started on box models, the way any JS brings Konqueror to a 
grinding halt, and proprietary specialised set-top-box web browsers with 
completely random (non-)support of features.

David Vallner