2008: Year of Server Side JavaScript?
Michael Mahemoff has been playing with server side JavaScript too.
I too haven’t heard of half of the list of Server Side JavaScript frameworks on Wikipedia, although it is certainly interesting to remember that Netscape did JavaScript on the server waaaay back in time.
At the same time, Aptana is trying to define an “Ajax server” with todays release of Jaxer. At first glimpse you can see some of the other frameworks, but it certainly is doing a lot more.
Michael hits on one of the key points when he talks about deployment:
Try finding a virtual host that supports Javascript! You would practically need one that support Java, so you can run Rhino or whatever, and few virtual hosts do that. At least Python and Ruby were running on many virtual hosts before Django and Rails showed up. For that reason, the model pursued by AppJet seems worthy. If they can come up with a solid virtualisation environment for Javascript, they may be on to a big winner.
I want to be able to hit “DEPLOY” or “PUBLISH” and have that be the only way I interact with production applications from now on (with the ability to roll back and scale out). When someone nails that, we will see a lot of applications coming out.
Maybe TheServerSide.com should become “Your JavaScript Community”?