Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

LiveScript VS GHCJS

Compare LiveScript VS GHCJS and see what are their differences

LiveScript logo LiveScript

LiveScript is a language which compiles down to JavaScript.

GHCJS logo GHCJS

Haskell to JavaScript compiler, based on GHC. Contribute to ghcjs/ghcjs development by creating an account on GitHub.
  • LiveScript Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-03-23
  • GHCJS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-10

LiveScript features and specs

  • Syntactic Sugar
    LiveScript offers a lot of syntactic sugar over JavaScript, making the code more concise and expressive. This includes cleaner function syntax, implicit returns, and significant whitespace, which can lead to faster development and more readable code.
  • Functional Programming
    LiveScript is designed with an emphasis on functional programming. It includes features like pattern matching, destructuring assignment, and first-class functions, which make it easier to write functional code compared to traditional JavaScript.
  • Compilation to JavaScript
    LiveScript compiles to JavaScript, which means it can be used anywhere JavaScript runs. This ensures compatibility with any JavaScript environment, including browsers and Node.js.
  • Extensive Built-in Functions
    The language includes a wide array of built-in higher-order functions which make operations like map, filter, and reduce easier to implement without needing to rely on external libraries.
  • Community and Ecosystem
    Benefiting from the JavaScript ecosystem, LiveScript has access to the vast array of JavaScript libraries and tools, making it versatile and largely adaptable to various projects.

Possible disadvantages of LiveScript

  • Small Community
    LiveScript has a smaller user base compared to other JavaScript transpilers like TypeScript or CoffeeScript, leading to fewer resources, less community support, and limited third-party integrations.
  • Learning Curve
    For developers used to traditional JavaScript, LiveScriptโ€™s unique syntax and functional programming style can pose a steep learning curve, requiring a shift in thinking and additional time to master.
  • Debugging Challenges
    Debugging LiveScript can be more challenging because developers often have to interpret the compiled JavaScript output rather than the original LiveScript code, which can be time-consuming and complex.
  • Lack of Type Safety
    Unlike TypeScript, LiveScript does not offer built-in static type checking, which can lead to runtime errors that might have been caught during a compile-time check in a language with stronger type support.
  • Adoption and Maintenance
    LiveScript is not as widely adopted as other languages that transpile to JavaScript, which raises concerns about its long-term maintenance and the potential for becoming obsolete if not actively maintained.

GHCJS features and specs

  • Haskell to JavaScript Compilation
    GHCJS allows developers to compile Haskell code to JavaScript, enabling the use of Haskellโ€™s advanced type system and functional programming features in web development.
  • Code Reusability
    Developers can reuse their Haskell codebase for both server-side and client-side applications, reducing code duplication and maintenance efforts.
  • Strong Type System
    Haskellโ€™s strong static type system helps in catching errors at compile time, which can result in more robust and reliable code for web applications.
  • Interoperability
    GHCJS provides interoperability with existing JavaScript libraries and modules, allowing developers to integrate Haskell into existing JavaScript ecosystems smoothly.

Possible disadvantages of GHCJS

  • Performance Overhead
    Generated JavaScript code may have performance overhead compared to native JavaScript, which can affect the execution speed of web applications.
  • Tooling and Ecosystem
    The GHCJS ecosystem and tooling may not be as mature or extensive as more established JavaScript frameworks, potentially leading to challenges in debugging and developer support.
  • Compilation Complexity
    The compilation process from Haskell to JavaScript can be complex, and build times might be longer compared to traditional JavaScript projects.
  • Limited Community and Support
    The GHCJS community is relatively smaller compared to mainstream JavaScript communities, which might limit the availability of resources, tutorials, and third-party libraries.

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to LiveScript and GHCJS)
Programming Language
100 100%
0% 0
Personal Finance
0 0%
100% 100
OOP
100 100%
0% 0
Financial Planner
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using LiveScript and GHCJS. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, LiveScript should be more popular than GHCJS. It has been mentiond 9 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.

LiveScript mentions (9)

  • Ask HN: Do you use an old or 'unfashionable' programming language?
    I'm writing all my stuff in CoffeeScript (which trans/com/piles to JavaScript). I feel like almost the last man standing at this point. I have some plans to revive a fork of https://github.com/jashkenas/coffeescript but those are ... plans. I like CS for its syntax which is indentation-based similar to Python; in addition, you get e.g. paren-less function calls as in `mul 4, 5`; also, all functions are 'lambdas'... - Source: Hacker News / 10 months ago
  • Oracle justified its JavaScript trademark with Node.jsโ€“now it wants that ignored
    That's an interesting idea. Just to mention though: LiveScript is a really great language that compiles to JavaScript. https://livescript.net/. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Oracle justified its JavaScript trademark with Node.jsโ€“now it wants that ignored
    It was a better name for JavaScript. It is a better name for another project that is better named than JavaScript and owns the name LiveScript now. https://livescript.net/. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Civet: A Superset of TypeScript
    I know this hasn't been updated, and I know it's a fork of CoffeeScript, but https://livescript.net/ has had a lot of the "magic" syntax here for quite a while. - Source: Hacker News / almost 2 years ago
  • Netscape and Sun announce JavaScript (1995)
    Fun fact: LiveScript is a FP-oriented language which compiles to JavaScript. It's been around for a while now :-) https://livescript.net/. - Source: Hacker News / about 3 years ago
View more

GHCJS mentions (4)

  • Secretly introduced rust in my company, now they love it!
    There is a fork that compiles to js https://github.com/ghcjs/ghcjs compiler, and I believe the official glasgow compiler is working towards also supporting js/wasm (although I don't think they are supported as of yet). Source: over 3 years ago
  • Is GHCJS stuck on GHC 8.6.5?
    Default branch on ghcjs github is 8.6. 8.10 is a wip with commit from around a month ago. Source: over 5 years ago
  • Why Do We Need Transpilation into JavaScript?
    At present, here at Typeable we develop frontend in Haskell and use the web framework Reflex and the functional reactive programming (FRP). The source code in Haskell is transpiled into the JavaScript code using GHCJS. - Source: dev.to / over 5 years ago
  • Why supporting all programming languages is a bad idea
    In theory it is possible to write applications that run in the web browser in Java or C# or C++. There are compilers to compile Java to JavaScript or C++ to JavaScript/WebAssembly and a C# runtime that runs in the browser. In practice these technologies are very niche and only used for very few applications. The Cardano Wallet Daedalus is written in JavaScript even though most of the software for Cardano is... Source: over 5 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing LiveScript and GHCJS, you can also consider the following products

JavaScript - Lightweight, interpreted, object-oriented language with first-class functions

Mint - Free personal finance software to assist you to manage your money, financial planning, and budget planning tools. Achieve your financial goals with Mint.

Typescript - TypeScript allows developers to compile a superset of JavaScript to plain JavaScript on any browser, host, or operating system.

Fay - A proper subset of Haskell that compiles to JavaScript - faylang/fay

CoffeeScript - Unfancy JavaScript

ReasonML - ReasonML is a new face to OCaml that--when coupled with BuckleScript--makes web development easy...