Gnome related javascript initiatives.

[Alexandre Mazari <scaroo gmail com>]

Hi javascript lovers (or victims),

To startup a bit the dialogue here, this mail will try to give an  
overview of the current Gnome related initiative I know of.
If anything is missing, please correct me.
Javascript might not be the more elegant and straight-forward dynamic  
language out there, but it benefits from its huge developer base and  
it omni-presence on users desktop, thanks to its tight coupling with  
the Web.
Also its prototype-based object orientation makes it an interesting  
curiosity for most of us, used to the more classical class-based  
approach.
Finally, JS has no runtime library, so the Glib-provided facilities do  
not compete with existing stuffs, thus not feeling alien there.
Anyway here are the main JS users in the gnome eco-system :

- Gjs: GObject binding for Javascript. Allow the writing of GObject  
applications/script in JS.
It is build over the Mozilla's *monkey js runtime. Main users : gnome- 
shell, Litl "shell".
http://live.gnome.org/Gjs

- Seed: GObject binding for Javascript. Allow the writing of GObject  
applications/script in JS.
It uses the JavaScriptCore runtime as found in WebKit.
http://live.gnome.org/Seed

- gnome-js-common: An attempt to federate some facilities between Gjs  
and Seed (module importation, Dbus bindings...) so to make scripts  
runnable on both of them.

- SeedKit: provides a Seed-augmented WebView to allow the creation of  
native applications UIs in standard web technologies. Those UI have  
access to lower-level services and libraries as exported by Seed.
http://live.gnome.org/SeedKit