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Remember Aptana Jaxer? It plugs into Apache and allows using JavaScript on the server-side as an alternative to languages such as PHP. It comes with a consistens and slick API for filesystem access, database connectivity, socket communication and whatever else you need.

I wonder why hasn't this been more widely adopted, why aren't more people using this? Javascript is a modern and clean programming language as opposed to PHP and the Jaxer API is just so much more consistent and neat. No offense, but the PHP API is just such a big mess with all its inconsistencies and its inconsequent function naming convention.

Jaxer also makes client/server communication really convenient with its runat="server-proxy" where you can directly call server-side function from within your client-side script and Jaxer takes care of all the XML HTTP request stuff.

So I would just really like to here what people think about it or why there's hardly anyone using it. Not wanting to start a flamewar here, I'm just curious.

Thanks

Kekslieber
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    *(related)* https://aptanastudio.tenderapp.com/discussions/problems/376-jaxer-forums/page/1?to=%2Fdiscussions%2Fproblems%2F376-jaxer-forums%2Fpage%2F1%3Fto%3D%252Fdiscussions%252Fproblems%252F376-jaxer-forums%252Fpage%252F2%253Fto%253D%25252Fdiscussions%25252Fproblems%25252F376-jaxer-forums – Gordon Jan 18 '11 at 14:58
  • Too many alternatives? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Server-side_JavaScript_solutions (you could always run it as CGI) – mario Jan 18 '11 at 15:11
  • *(related)* http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2095793/web-host-with-jaxer/2103165#2103165 – Warren Young Jan 18 '11 at 20:38

3 Answers3

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Well, first of all, there is Node.JS out there, too. Far more people have heard of that, probably. And people do use node, especially when it comes to chats and similar things: Things there long-polling is appreciated.

My personal problem with node is, that it is so asynchronous. That's a very, very, very big pro on one hand, because is allows most awesome performance and makes some things so much easier, but on the other hand it is a big minus for those used to synchronous programming languages. I simply have problems with looking at code which has 15 callbacks nested in each other...

NikiC
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  • Yea I've heard about Node.JS and I agree that it's asynchronous nature certainly can be awesome for some things, but it's often overkill if your program is just not supposed to make use of that. So that's why I'm asking about Jaxer, because in my opinion that can be more directly compared to PHP. – Kekslieber Jan 18 '11 at 15:11
  • Yes, my answer is only slightly related to your question. I have heard of Jaxer the first time now. I just wanted to say which problem I have with the only server-side JS implementation I know ;) I can delete it, if you consider it too off-topic. – NikiC Jan 18 '11 at 15:14
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I remember taking a look at Jaxer, back when it came out. I don't remember any sample applications at the time though. I wanted to get a feel for what it was good at. Just because a language is "cleaner", may not be enough to get people switch. What is its "unique benefit"? For example, Node.js is good at real-time applications and they make that relatively clear in the sample code on their front page.

I think there was also been more uptake of Javascript, since Jaxer was initially released. There seem to be more back-end developers who now also know Javascript. I would say that's more true now than when Jaxer was released. In other words, maybe it was ahead of its time.

Matt V.
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  • Hi Matt, Well I don't know if Jaxer has any "unique benefit". I understand what you mean talking about Node.Js. Now I haven't really looked into it that much but from what I see Node.JS isn't really meant as a replacement for PHP. I was more thinking of using Jaxer for what PHP is used mostly, i.e. your normal server-side website programming sort of thing, where most of the time, you don't really have much use for the asynchronity (?). I would just love to be able to use Javascript instead of messy PHP all the timef for writing webpages. – Kekslieber Jan 18 '11 at 17:13
  • In that case, you might want to check out jspp: http://www.jspp.io/ – Matt V. Jan 18 '11 at 19:57
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Personally I liked Jaxer, because you easily could use the same code client and server-side without duplication (such as form validation), however I didn't like, that you had hardly any control over the generated pages, which where propped full of JavaScript even for the most trivial page and made the pages highly depended on JavaScript, which made unobtrusive JavaScript virtually impossible.

So I guess for purely JavaScript-based web apps it's ok, however now there is for example Google Web Toolkit, which is much more powerful, which basicly also allows you to use one language client and server-side.

RoToRa
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