What should Rakudo-js aim for first?
I'm considering applying for a TPF grant to allow me to fully focus on working on getting Rakudo to target JS.
To focus the grant application (and pin down the deliverables) I need to choose a use case for rakudo-js to focus on.
Possible ones (ideas for new ones are appreciated).
- running a single page app in a browser (using react.js/jquery or just vanilla js).
- running on top of node.js
- running on top of react.native on a mobile phone
- exploring Perl 6 in your browser (having a awesome REPL, being able to execute snippets etc.)
This is my JavaScript backend for Rakudo/NQP blog.
Node is the one *not* to go for IMO — Perl 6 isn't in need of another server-side runtime at the moment, and getting Perl 6's and Node's concurrency models to play together would be... interesting, actually, but also complicated and distracting.
I could make an argument for any of the other ones, so I'm not sure I could choose between them.
First option: doing something straightforward and useful, in an elegant way, showcases Perl's ability to get things done.
Third option: mobile is a smaller audience, but on the other hand breaking into a niche and getting people interested would be a great result.
Fourth option: gets people engaged in playing with the language. An interactive online sandbox is a really great thing for a language to have these days.
Exploring Perl 6 in your browser might be a good one since it would enable interactive tutorials to be made. I thought about maybe doing this with Perlito a while ago. By running in the users browser you avoid all the issues (and cost) of having to run someones tutorial code server side.
Have you thought of targeting webassembly? This looks more like the future than javascript
I would say target plain old JS for a start. All the other stuff can/is done in plain old JS :)