On: JavaScript Is Weird

[hazz99]

You only need to package your runtime if you’re using a language that requires a runtime :)

Languages that perform their own memory management (C, C++, Rust etc) will be extremely small. Just one big array of bytes/instructions.

[jraph → hazz99]

you still need to provide their standard library, at least the subset used by your program

[hazz99 → jraph]

That’s the same for everything, no? I assume most JavaScript websites come packaged with their (transpiled, minified) versions of the “standard library” of whatever framework they’re using. And that has to be transmitted as gzipped bundles of plaintext javascript.

Further, tree shaking is much harder with a dynamic language.

My understanding is that a WebAssembly implementation would usually be smaller than a JavaScript one, assuming you’re using a language without a runtime.