At a glance, I'm very impressed. I've never learned any Javascript, but I know quite a lot of Java and C++. Theoretically, I could now make elaborate JavaScript code without having to learn it at all! Very nice! A few questions:
1) How close is this to Java or C#? Could I take entire programs written in Java and compile them in Milescript? Will I have to make minor changes to my Java code to compile it in Milescript? Or will I have to completely rewrite the code to compile it in Milescript?
2) How universal is this? Can I take any OO program and make it into Javascript with this tool, or are there limitations to Milescript's capabilities?
Heya mano, thanks for your interest. You are exactly write in your assessment. Our entire goal was to make it possible for people versed in Java and C# to jump right in, while giving current web developers a high-level language to code in. To answer your questions:
1.) It is much close to Java than it is to C#, however, it does define delegates, which Java has no concept of. Also, Milescript has several keywords Java does not, such as
external. However, there are very few of these differences indeed. In fact, if you rename the extension of a Milescript class file to ".java" and open it with Eclipse, you get refactoring support. Also, if you use the Java editor in eclipse to edit Milescript classes, you get syntax highlighting and class hierarchy support. In summation, you should be able to port a Java program to Milescript with very little effort, and one of our coders has done just that for some test projects.
2.) You should be able to use most, if not all high-level OO patterns. We have tested singleton pattern, mvc, and some others. The only thing to remember is that Javascript is currently single threaded (maybe a work in with google gears to solve this?) so there's no real producer consumer for instance. (Unless ur using something with a native thread, like an XMLHTTPRequest.)
Hope that helps some!
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