> almost all of POSIX is implemented in browsers now.
POSIX is not implemented anywhere. There are degrees to which it's implemented in various systems. It also doesn't mean that having POSIX implemented makes things accessible to anyone, or that this 40-year-old standard is even relevant anymore.
It doesn't mean that POSIX is implemented in the browser:
- it's basically an emulator running on top of some browser tech that runs linux.
- Linux is mostly, but not entirely POSIX-compliant
> we'll likely have a full WASM POSIX environment in your browser. Get some of the core tools like gcc, etc. prebuilt and you're good to go to just start building the world in your browser
This will literally never happen outside of some geek circles. If only for the simple reason: you'll have to download the entirety of Linux and its tools into the browser for every user.
I don't know where your rage is coming from, other than to be a pedant.
Downloading the entirety of Linux, coreutils, etc. _is_ the point. Right now a kid with an iPhone is limited to programming it with whatever toy apps Apple has decided to allow on their app store. Or on Android you're lucky to be allowed to use Termux to run a little proot environment to mostly use core linux tools. There's _no_ way for that kid to learn and use 'real' programming languages and tools--want to learn rust? Sorry, you're SOL. Want to program some Go? Not going to happen. Etc.
But give that kid a browser window that's a full POSIX shell with gcc and all the coreutils built. Perhaps some CDN hosting precompiled packages just like apt/rpm/etc. repos... and now we're talking. They can do _anything_ and no app store limit or whatever will stop them.
This is precisely for geek circles. The kind of geek that opens up that weird qbasic.exe they found rooting around their parents DOS machine and then blew their mind at the possibilities. We don't have anything like that for kids today and it's a real shame, but the birth and death of JS demo here made into reality can change that. I look forward to the day some kid clicks a link, sees a blinking bash prompt and a pointer to read some man pages or help files and has their mind blown too.
I don't know why you assume I have any rage. I'm just pointing out facts.
> There's _no_ way for that kid to learn and use 'real' programming languages and tools--want to learn rust?
Ah, yes. "Real programming languages", not "toys provided by Apple". "Kids wanting to learn Rust on a phone".
> But give that kid a browser window that's a full POSIX shell with gcc and all the coreutils built.
And?
> They can do _anything_
No. They still can't do "anything". Since Linux is already running in the browser, go ahead, run it on a phone, install rust into it, and go do "anything". Then come back and tell me if any kid will want to do that.
> This is precisely for geek circles. The kind of geek that opens up that weird qbasic.exe
Ah yes. So now you're limiting all kids to just geeks who are willing to tinker with a rust compiler running in a shell in a linux running on a wasm on a browser on a phone. God forbid it would be other kids with "apple toys" and "non-real programming languages" that don't require "a full POSIX shell with gcc and all the coreutils built".
> I look forward to the day some kid clicks a link, sees a blinking bash prompt and a pointer to read some man pages or help files and has their mind blown too.
More likely than not that kid will see a blinking prompt, and will go away saying "what in the fresh hell is this".
Modern "toys" open significantly more opportunities for kids to learn than any posix shell. Apple's Swift Playgrounds will teach and interest a few magnitudes more kids to learn programming than a "bash shell with a prompt to read man pages".
POSIX is not implemented anywhere. There are degrees to which it's implemented in various systems. It also doesn't mean that having POSIX implemented makes things accessible to anyone, or that this 40-year-old standard is even relevant anymore.
> Look at for example JSLinux https://bellard.org/jslinux/ for the classic example
It doesn't mean that POSIX is implemented in the browser:
- it's basically an emulator running on top of some browser tech that runs linux.
- Linux is mostly, but not entirely POSIX-compliant
> we'll likely have a full WASM POSIX environment in your browser. Get some of the core tools like gcc, etc. prebuilt and you're good to go to just start building the world in your browser
This will literally never happen outside of some geek circles. If only for the simple reason: you'll have to download the entirety of Linux and its tools into the browser for every user.