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Skeptical of rewriting JavaScript tools in "faster" languages

(nolanlawson.com)
160 points todsacerdoti | 1 comments | 20 Oct 24 21:25 UTC | HN request time: 0.224s | source
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noname120 ◴[20 Oct 24 22:04 UTC] No.41898858[source]▶
> I just don’t think we’ve exhausted all the possibilities of making JavaScript tools faster

Rewriting in more performant languages spares you from the pain of optimization. These tools written in Rust are somehow 100× as fast despite not being optimized at all.

JavaScript is so slow that you have to optimize stuff, with Rust (and other performant languages) you don't even need to because performance just doesn't bubble up as a problem at all, letting you focus on building the actual tool.

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evanjrowley ◴[20 Oct 24 22:12 UTC] No.41898915[source]▶
>JavaScript is so slow that you have to optimize stuff

This raises the question, is JavaScript more prone to premature optimization?

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noname120 ◴[20 Oct 24 22:13 UTC] No.41898925[source]▶
Well, can we really call it premature optimization if it's needed?
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1. robinsonrc ◴[21 Oct 24 02:37 UTC] No.41900223[source]▶
I guess if folks write JS with the idea that optimisations are needed in mind, then the chances of premature optimisations may go up along with those of the required ones