Scriptc by Vercel: TypeScript-to-Native compiler, no JavaScript engine in binary

Scriptc by Vercel: TypeScript-to-Native compiler, no JavaScript engine in binary(github.com)

29 points by maxloh 4 hours ago | 7 comments

sheept 13 minutes ago |

One of the strengths of TypeScript besides its expressiveness is that it's compatible with the massive npm ecosystem. Most packages only ship untyped JavaScript with type declarations defining the interface,[0] so realistically you'd still need a JavaScript engine if you use any packages.

But if you're starting from scratch and know you won't be using any npm packages, you might as well use AssemblyScript.[2]

[0]: Publishing packages in TypeScript is explicitly discouraged by Node[1]. TypeScript isn't backwards compatible even in minor releases, and its compiler settings aren't portable for packages.

[1]: https://github.com/nodejs/node/blob/main/doc/api/typescript....

[2]: https://www.assemblyscript.org/

simonw 9 minutes ago | |

> so realistically you'd still need a JavaScript engine if you use any packages.

Looks like Scriptc's solution to that problem is that it can optionally bundle a 620KB quickjs-ng JavaScript engine if you have dependencies that need to be executed that way.

acmnrs 29 minutes ago |

Porforr<https://porffor.dev> has been working towards the same goal for a while. The creator, CanadaHonk<https://honk.foo>, is extremely talented and the project still only passes ~68% of Test262. I'm more than a little suspicious of how Vercel has made so much progress so fast, unless I'm misunderstanding the scope of this project.

simonw 23 minutes ago | |

> I'm more than a little suspicious of how Vercel has made so much progress so fast

Coding agents. They landed 918,000 lines of code in a single week: https://github.com/vercel-labs/scriptc/graphs/contributors?s...

pizlonator 2 minutes ago | | |

That explains why:

- the architecture is idiotic.

- they have zero credible perf numbers.

I plan to benchmark it using generally accepted methods.

Porffor makes careful trade offs that make sense and is benchmarked in a way that I can believe.

(Source: I make dynamic languages fast for a living)

acmnrs 20 minutes ago | | |

That makes sense. It also seems like this uses a lot more dependencies and tiers of compilation whereas Porforr is trying to do everything from scratch.

satvikpendem 35 minutes ago |

A lot of people are trying this now with AI, a native TypeScript compiler, for example https://github.com/PerryTS/pry. It's a compelling value proposition, TypeScript is already well typed and barring a few cases it can be turned into machine code without a JS runtime.

aabhay 41 minutes ago |

178kb?! What are you putting in there, a JVM?

casper14 23 minutes ago |

I like the idea.