> I am not that worried about average JavaScript code. I am more concerned about computational cores that people will start rewriting to asm.js.
> Or here is another question: how do you keep incentive to optimize Emscripten generated code so that eventually you can kill "use asm" and go full speed without it?
I hope that some JS engine does no special asm.js optimizations, but at the same time achieves the same speed. That would be both an amazing technical achievement, and a very useful result (since presumably it would apply to more code)! :)
Btw, I actually was pushing for that direction in early asm.js-or-something-like-it talks. So I think I see where you are coming from on this matter, and most of the rest of your post as well - good points.
However, I strongly believe that despite the correctly-pointed-out downsides, asm.js is by far the best option the web has: We need backwards compatibility + near-native speed + something reasonably simple to implement + minimal standardization difficulties. I understand the appeal of the alternatives, but think asm.js is far closer to achieving all of those necessary goals.
> Or here is another question: how do you keep incentive to optimize Emscripten generated code so that eventually you can kill "use asm" and go full speed without it?
I hope that some JS engine does no special asm.js optimizations, but at the same time achieves the same speed. That would be both an amazing technical achievement, and a very useful result (since presumably it would apply to more code)! :)
Btw, I actually was pushing for that direction in early asm.js-or-something-like-it talks. So I think I see where you are coming from on this matter, and most of the rest of your post as well - good points.
However, I strongly believe that despite the correctly-pointed-out downsides, asm.js is by far the best option the web has: We need backwards compatibility + near-native speed + something reasonably simple to implement + minimal standardization difficulties. I understand the appeal of the alternatives, but think asm.js is far closer to achieving all of those necessary goals.