Is there an alternative to JavaScript for writing client-side web application code?

Question

I want to program my xhtml Web Applications without javascript.

What are the alternatives for creating interactive xhtml web applications?

Perhaps java applets which do the tasks of javascript?

Or is there another way?

Thanks for any help!

Javascript is hard to debug, is dynamically typed, strange OOP, could be replaced by any other language when that language will be cut to work at a browser.

I would also like some typesafety in my code what can discover many bugs before running the code.

--EDIT 2--

Have a look at http://www.scala-js.org/.

---EDIT---

So for now there is no real alternative to javascript what is as flexible, widespread and applicable. What i think is applicable are frameworks/tools who compile one language to another like GWT or coffescript.

Thank you for the detailed answers. The reason for my question was, that web development is getting more complex every day. I prefer languages like Java for stable error outlining and type safety. JavaScript on the other hand is (in my opinion) mysterious in its ways and hard to debug (browser incompatibilities, silent errors, unintuitive operands, dynamic typing,....). I developed Websites with JS for years now and it feels horrible to me due to such debugging problems and code management. Yet the libraries are quite powerful and ease much of the work.

Answer 1

To have an interactive site you need something that can execute code on the client machine.

This is (at the moment) usually JavaScript. In the past this would have also included Flash or Silverlight (both of which are now on the wane).

JavaScript has a big advantage in that it can easily manipulate the HTML elements directly. While it is possible to do that with Silverlight it's not as easy as Silverlight is designed primarily to build self-contained objects.

Answer 2

Check out Google Dart - it has reached 1.0 recently, and has started standardization process few days ago (ECMA TC52). It also compatible with currently available browser via highly optimizing dart2js translator, so you can start using it right now :). Much more sane language than JavaScript, IMO.

More can find more information on the official page here: https://www.dartlang.org/ (tools, documentation, sample code, tutorials), and there is also nice introductory video on the YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqsU3TbUw_s.

Answer 3

If it runs on the client's computer and can modify the DOM, it can work. JavaScript is the most widely supported so it'll work out-of-the-box for many people.

Basically, anything which functions like JavaScript can replace it.

1. Flash can perform basically everything that JavaScript can (graphically, but it can't modify the DOM), but if the user doesn't have Flash Player installed, you're out of luck.
2. Java can also work, but the same concept applies: if the user doesn't have JRE (or a similar machine)
3. Silverlight is similar to Flash, but much less supported (I can barely get it to work on my Linux box)

Just curious: why are you looking to replace JavaScript with something else?

Answer 4

Use pyjamas (google it), you can write normal python code and have it compiled as javascript so you get the best of both worlds, the power and expressiveness of python and the ubiquity of javascript.

Also keep an eye on the Falcon project by Adobe, it's an experimental compiler which translates actionscript 3 (a very powerful language compared to plain javascript) and the flex framework to javascript.

You can also try GWT by Google, where java is used as the client side building code (and yes, it also gets compiled to native javascript).

Answer 5

I'd be very interested to know what your reasons are for not wanting to use Javascript? The answer to that question will make a big difference to how your question should be answered.

The Javascript language is actually quite powerful. Yes, it does have some quirks, but so do all other languages. A lot of the perceived "problems" with Javascript development in the browser are actually people having issues with the DOM rather than Javascript itself. The DOM, on the other hand is where a lot of the shortcomings and the cross browser issues crop up.

If this is where your problems lie, then you may be better off using a Javascript library such as JQuery, which abstracts away a lot of the direct access to the DOM, and resolves a lot of the cross-browser issues.

If you're using the latest browsers, a lot of the simple effects that previously required Javascript can now be done using CSS. drop-down menus, tabsets, fading, rotation and transition effects. All of this can be done with CSS. However most of them are quite new, and not available in all browsers currently in common use, so you would be better off sticking to Javascript for at least some of them for the time being. Even when they are ready for mainstream use, you'll still need some Javascript to hook them all together.

If you do really have a burning desire to develop using a language other than Javascript, then as you already pointed out, there are other options for programming on the web, such as Java applets. There's also ActiveX controls, Flash and Silverlight, and a few others. However none of them are universally available to all users in the way that Javascript is.

All of them require browser plug-ins of one sort or another, and all of them have issues with users who don't want to install them or corporate environments that don't allow them to be installed. In the case of technologies like ActiveX, they may only be available on certain browsers and operating systems, and (again like ActiveX) they often have security issues.

The only real reason that most of these other technologies existed in the first place was to fill a gap in the capabilities of the browsers at the time. All of these capability issues have now been resolved -- with HTML5 and related technologies driven by Javascript, Flash and Silverlight have been rendered obsolete; ActiveX controls were considered obsolete long ago; and when was the last time you saw a Java applet in mainstream use?

The bottom line is that the browser world is moving very rapidly away from any client-side code other than Javascript, and there are very good reasons for that.

Answer 6

Some JavaScript alternatives:

• Flash
• Silverlight
• Java applets

This is not a recommendation, just a list.

If you're really that allergic to JavaScript, there are a number of frameworks that let you write server-side code which generates the JS for you, as other answers mention.

Answer 7

This may seem inane, but I actually like using jQuery much better than JavaScript. It makes event handling and Ajax very simple.

Answer 8

Google Web Toolkit GWT lets you write java code which compiles to client-side xhtml+javascript. It relinquishes the page-based standard web approach for a more desktop-like interaction (if I remember correctly the API is somewhat similar to many desktop windowing toolkits).

You may (but don't have to) also develop the (java) server logic and have some client-server communication baked in for you by the compiler.

Have a look at http://code.google.com/intl/it-IT/webtoolkit/

Answer 9

If you're considering java applets, then I guess it's necessary to mention Flash and Silverlight (*).

Of course, there are "interactive" web applications that don't use javascript... they use postback. But I don't think this is what you mean.

If you want to target just Internet Explorer, you can use VBScript (Microsoft's proprietary javascript) or even ActiveX. But I doubt that's what you mean, too.

So the onus is on you to answer — why not javascript?

(*) I guess.

Answer 10

One thing you can do is simply have the server-side code do all of the processing. You limit yourself to having only CSS available for interactivity, but you can still do just about everything by loading a new page.

Answer 11

As well as applets you have Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight, shortly Chrome NACL. None of these interact with the HTML DOM as seamlessly as JavaScript though.