Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

ACE (Ajax Code Editor) VS Emscripten

Compare ACE (Ajax Code Editor) VS Emscripten and see what are their differences

ACE (Ajax Code Editor) logo ACE (Ajax Code Editor)

Focused and built towards coders, web designers, and web builders, ACE (Ajax Code Editor) can help...

Emscripten logo Emscripten

Emscripten is an LLVM to JavaScript compiler.
  • ACE (Ajax Code Editor) Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-05
  • Emscripten Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-08-02

ACE (Ajax Code Editor) features and specs

  • Rich Feature Set
    ACE provides syntax highlighting, line numbers, code folding, autocompletion, and more, making it quite powerful for web-based coding.
  • Customizability
    Users can extend and customize ACE by adding themes, changing the key bindings, and altering other settings to fit their workflow.
  • Wide Language Support
    ACE supports syntax highlighting for numerous programming languages, enabling developers to work with varied code bases within the same editor.
  • In-Browser Operation
    Being a web-based code editor, ACE can be used directly in the browser without any need for installation or configuration, providing immediate access across devices.
  • Open Source
    As an open-source project, ACE allows developers to contribute to the codebase, ensure transparency, and avoid vendor lock-in.

Possible disadvantages of ACE (Ajax Code Editor)

  • Performance Limitations
    Being a JavaScript-based editor running in the browser, ACE may experience performance issues when handling particularly large files compared to native desktop editors.
  • Lack of Advanced IDE Features
    ACE is mainly a code editor and does not provide some of the advanced features found in full-fledged IDEs, such as built-in debugging tools or integrated terminal support.
  • Limited Offline Use
    Since ACE is designed for web-based environments, there might be limitations or additional steps required to use it effectively offline.
  • Dependency on Browser
    The performance and capability of ACE can vary depending on the browser being used, making it subject to each browser's limitations and quirks.
  • Learning Curve
    Setting up custom configurations and understanding the full range of features may require a learning period, especially for users new to web-based editors.

Emscripten features and specs

  • Cross-platform compatibility
    Emscripten enables developers to compile C and C++ code to WebAssembly or JavaScript, allowing the same codebase to run on multiple platforms, such as browsers and node.js, without needing additional platform-specific adaptations.
  • Leverage existing libraries
    Developers can utilize a vast ecosystem of existing C and C++ libraries by compiling them for the web, saving time and resources required for rewriting or finding alternatives developed in JavaScript.
  • Performance optimization
    Emscripten's compilation to WebAssembly provides near-native performance for web applications, making it suitable for compute-intensive tasks like gaming, simulations, and data processing.
  • Familiar toolchain
    Developers can use familiar tools like CMake and others as part of their Emscripten workflow, making it easier for those with C/C++ backgrounds to adapt and integrate into their web development processes.

Possible disadvantages of Emscripten

  • Steep learning curve
    Developers unfamiliar with C and C++ may find Emscripten challenging to use effectively, as it requires knowledge of these languages and their build systems to create and debug applications.
  • Limitations in browser environments
    Certain features of C/C++ may not translate directly to web environments due to browser sandboxing constraints, leading to potential issues with file I/O, threading, and other system-level operations.
  • Code size
    Compiled WebAssembly and JavaScript code can sometimes be large, potentially affecting load times and performance, especially on lower-end devices with restrictive bandwidth or processing capabilities.
  • Debugging complexity
    Debugging WebAssembly code can be more complex than traditional JavaScript, requiring specialized tooling and techniques to trace and fix issues effectively.

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Emscripten videos

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Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to ACE (Ajax Code Editor) and Emscripten)
Text Editors
50 50%
50% 50
IDE
18 18%
82% 82
Web Development Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Email Marketing
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Emscripten should be more popular than ACE (Ajax Code Editor). It has been mentiond 47 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

ACE (Ajax Code Editor) mentions (17)

  • AI-Powered Frontend UI Components Generator (Next.js, GPT4, Langchain, & CopilotKit)
    Ace Code Editor - an embeddable code editor written in JavaScript that matches the features and performance of native editors. - Source: dev.to / 12 months ago
  • Show HN: A note-keeping system on top of Fossil SCM
    I used a note system built on top of Fossil as my primary system for quite a while. Here are the details in case anyone is interested. Fossil allows CGI extensions[1]. There's a database for tickets, but that's just a regular SQLite table that you can use to store anything you want, and it's version controlled and queryable. I stored the notes plus metadata in the tickets database. The CGI returned HTML with the... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Writing a (simple) code editor for the web?
    Hey there! Thanks for reaching out. Writing a code editor with syntax highlighting in a browser can be a little tricky, but it's definitely doable. One resource that might be helpful is the Ace Editor library (https://ace.c9.io/). It's a lightweight but powerful editor that includes syntax highlighting for a huge range of languages. You could also check out CodeMirror (https://codemirror.net/), which is another... Source: about 2 years ago
  • The ShnooTalk programming language
    The frontend uses the ace editor for syntax highlighting and then sends all the "text" you have typed to a python backend. The backend then writes all the text to a temporary directory and calls the compiler using subprocess (something similar to os.system). Source: over 2 years ago
  • MDSlides - Simple markdown presentation tool
    It is built using Reveal.js and Ace, and is a simple markdown presentation tool right in the browser. Source: over 2 years ago
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Emscripten mentions (47)

  • Ask HN: Qt style "Signals and Slots" based JavaScript UI library?
    The first thing that comes to mind is that Qt now has a WebAssembly port[1] using Emscripten[2], so depending on your use-case, you could possibly just run Qt on the Web platform and avoid the need for a JavaScript framework entirely. [1]: https://doc.qt.io/qt-5/wasm.html [2]: https://emscripten.org. - Source: Hacker News / 13 days ago
  • Ask HN: Resources for Learning Graphics Programming
    Me and a friend build our own Graphics engines based on https://learnopengl.com I can highly recommend this to everyone who gets started with computer graphics. It is a lot of new information but not the most modern Graphics library, but the information will help you understand the field and pickup any other graphics library quicker. Once I had a small project up and running I started looking at... - Source: Hacker News / 8 months ago
  • Software Applications Incorporated
    Https://infinitemac.org, which is https://basilisk.cebix.net compiled for the web using https://emscripten.org. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • How does one get started with unit testing?
    One place that I’ve found some real, open source unit tests to look at for an example is in the emsdk for emscripten: https://emscripten.org. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Playing with low-level memory in WebAssembly
    I am playing around with Emscipten which wraps around clang to compile C/C++ code in WASM binary and provide some glue-code API to embed WASM binary into JavaScript. Look into MDN Docs and Emscripten SDK to get started. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing ACE (Ajax Code Editor) and Emscripten, you can also consider the following products

CodeMirror - CodeMirror is a versatile text editor implemented in JavaScript for the browser.

WebAssembly - Application and Data, Languages & Frameworks, and Languages

Monaco Editor - A browser based code editor

GNU Compiler Collection - The GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) is a compiler system produced by the GNU Project supporting...

QuickJS - Application and Data, Build, Test, Deploy, and JavaScript Compilers

Cheerp - Enterprise-grade C/C++ compiler for Web applications. Compiles to WASM/JavaScript