Mozilla is Funding a Way To Support Julia in Firefox (zdnet.com) 95
Mozilla is funding a project for bringing the Julia programming language to Firefox and the general browser environment. From a report: The project received funding part of the Mozilla Research Grants for the first half of 2019, which the browser maker announced on Friday. In April, when Mozilla opened this year's submissions period for research grants, the organization said it was looking for a way to bring data science and scientific computing tools to the web. It said it was specifically interested in receiving submissions about supporting R or Julia at the browser level. Both R and Julia are programming languages designed for high-performance numerical, statistical, and computational science.
Mozilla engineers have worked in previous years to port data science tools at the browser level, as part of Project Iodide. Previously, as part of this project, Mozilla engineers ported the Python interpreter to run in the browser using WebAssembly. "This project, Pyodide, has demonstrated the practicality of running language interpreters in WebAssembly," Mozilla engineers said.
Mozilla engineers have worked in previous years to port data science tools at the browser level, as part of Project Iodide. Previously, as part of this project, Mozilla engineers ported the Python interpreter to run in the browser using WebAssembly. "This project, Pyodide, has demonstrated the practicality of running language interpreters in WebAssembly," Mozilla engineers said.
Just say no to running arbitrary code in a browser (Score:2, Informative)
The browers are seriously going off the rails. Either spin off a new terminal program that runs the code or think really hard about the use case for this and the number of people who want it.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Just say no to running arbitrary code in a brow (Score:4, Informative)
-2, Uninformed. This project uses WebAssembly which is just Javascript, already running in your browser. No new "arbitrary" here. Well, your arbitrary post. That's about the extent of it.
Re: Just say no to running arbitrary code in a bro (Score:2)
just Javascript, already running in your browser.
That's already a problem, so web (browsers) went off the rails a long time ago.
A solution looking for a problem (Score:3)
Just like most stuff developed by Mozilla lately.
Because there aren't enough ... (Score:1)
unpatched exploits already. Let's make room for a few more.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It's really more the clueless train.
But they can’t add back XUL and ALSA (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Julia's a programming language? Never heard of it. Sounds like a hipster vape pens [juul.com] for girls.
So... was that modded Troll *and* Flamebait because I made fun of Julia, Vapers, or Vaping Julia programmers ...? Someone cares *that* much about any one of those groups to mod it down rather than ignore it? Okay, whatever. I'm happy to get a two-fer, and I'll offer that maybe /. just needs an "unfunny" mod (especially considering my weird sense of humor), but -- seriously -- at least two someones need to (a) lighten up, (b) get thicker skin and/or (c) get a sense of humor (especially considering the upc
Re: (Score:2)
FYI, your comment rubs people the wrong way because you're implying that if you've never heard of a programming language, the language isn't important. And since trolling is saying stuff just to get a rise out of people (i.e., you don't really believe it), whoever modded you "troll" must think you don't genuinely think your recollection of buzzwords is a yardstick for importance.
Re: (Score:2)
FYI, your comment rubs people the wrong way because you're implying that if you've never heard of a programming language, the language isn't important.
Fair point, but, considering some of the other posts, many other people, who *have* heard of Julia, don't think the language is (that) important. Just sayin' :-)
[Also, I've got $10 that says Juul comes out with a chick-oriented line called Juulia at some point.]
Dear Mozilla (Score:4, Interesting)
It seems you have lost your way as of late, concentrating on any project that doesn't improve your core model of a solid browser.
Please consider the encroaching hegemony of Google and Chrome, and consider going back to basics, as it were, and make a browser that can go head to head with Chrome, because the more you spread yourself thin, the easier it is for the Google juggernaut to roll right over you. They already got IE, Opera (IIRC) and a few others, you are the last (again, IIRC) non-Chrome browser out there.
Re: (Score:2)
Is there anything actually wrong with Firefox that needs urgently fixing?
Seems like their problem is that they sucked for about a decade and now it's hard to built support back up. Their privacy enhancements seem like a good way to do that. I'm going to switch back from Chrome as soon as I can figure out the logistics of it.
Re: (Score:2)
Their constant UI "improvements" really piss me off. Pick one, stay with it.
Per tab sandboxing is WAY MORE IMPORTANT (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Oh, yes, and while we are at it. (Score:2)
Please make adding programming languages and environments to browsers a continuous process, so that the rate of adding bugs exceeds the rate of fixing the bugs.
Nothing can go wrong.
Re: (Score:2)
Says more about you than Julia.
Firefox become the "Emacs" of web browsers (Score:3)
Firefox is a decent operating system lacking only a good web browser
Julia (Score:2, Informative)
Julia is a high-level general-purpose dynamic programming language designed for high-performance numerical analysis and computational science. It is also useful for low-level systems programming, as a specification language, with work being done on client and server web use.
Distinctive aspects of Julia's design include a type system with parametric polymorphism and types in a fully dynamic programming language and multiple dispatch as its core programming paradigm. It allows concurrent, parallel and distributed computing, and direct calling of C and Fortran libraries without glue code. A just-in-time compiler that is referred to as "just-ahead-of-time" in the Julia community is used.
Julia is garbage-collected, uses eager evaluation, and includes efficient libraries for floating-point calculations, linear algebra, random number generation, and regular expression matching. Many libraries are available, including some (e.g., for fast Fourier transforms) that were previously bundled with Julia and are now separate.
Tools available for Julia include IDEs; with integrated tools, e.g. a linter, debugger, and the Rebugger.jl package "supports repeated-execution debugging" and more.
Re: (Score:2)
Not sure what argument you're attempting to make, but Matlab is closed/proprietary/binary only. Julia isn't a replacement for it, but to the extent it does overlap with Matlab use cases I am all for it. Just say no to bespoke tools.
Re: (Score:1)
Devs have a "director of community outreach and diversity" or some such shit. It was at that moment of discovery that I lost all interest in the language. "Woke" programming languages, WTF?
Fuck me. (Score:1)
It's like nobody on Slashdot has any idea what they're talking about anymore. They just want to be angry about something, especially when Mozilla is involved. The details don't matter. Whatever it is, it must be some kind of insecure bloat that's taking Mozilla away from their mission somehow. High-performance web standards running on the same security layer as the rest, with no special new capabilities? Screw that. Mozilla is intensely focused on their Fission project? Not good enough.
It's come to the poin
Re: (Score:2)
If, according to you, Firefox is no longer extensible, then why pray tell have I got so many useful extensions installed and working like a charm?
Let them try (Score:2)
I'm skeptical that this is going to be the next big thing, but I'm glad someone is trying to improve web browers. After nearly three decades, the modern web browser is still a terrible platform for all the things we try to do with it. It's still just a renderer for a clumsy markup language with a plethora of awful hacks built in.
Re: (Score:3)
Yeah, Julia is a reasonable successor to JavaScript, Java, Fortran, C++, Python, Perl, and R for most applications. It could be very useful.
see below for complaints about how Julia will "never replace my favorite language".
Re: (Score:2)
That would be excellent if true. Otherwise, Julia looks like a fine general purpose tool. I don't see why it should be limited only to analytical applications.
Re: (Score:2)
Arrays with custom indices [julialang.org]
Re: (Score:2)
Your whining is getting old, snowflake.