Re: [Caja] Fwd: quick look at Caja vs. GWT's output

On Jan 22, 2008 10:11 PM, Mark Miller <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> Interesting discussion about Caja, GWT, and Joe-E starting on the
> e-lang list. To subscribe:
> <http://www.eros-os.org/mailman/listinfo/e-lang>
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Lex Spoon <[email protected]>
> Date: 2008/1/22
> Subject: [e-lang] quick look at Caja vs. GWT's output
> To: [email protected]
>
>
>
> I looked over the Caja doc a few days ago, mainly at the informal
> overview at the beginning, trying to figure out if the Google Web
> Toolkit (GWT) can be modified to emit Caja.  I'm posting here, because
> it's a cross-language issue.
>
> Background, for those needing it:
> - GWT is a Java->JavaScript translator developed at Google.  You write
> Java code, and it translates it to JavaScript
>
> - Caja is an objcaps subset of JavaScript that is also developed at Google.
>
> - Joe-E is an objcaps subset of Java.
>
> Currently these projects have no relation.  It would be neat if (1)
> GWT could emit Caja, and (2) GWT could, when given Joe-E input, could
> emit Caja that parallels the structure and security properties of the
> Joe-E input.  (more on that in a few minutes).
>

Great idea, and very interesting indeed.

> There do appear to be some non-fundamental yet time-consuming issues
> to fix up.  In particular, the naming issues are quite likely to run
> into stumbling blocks here and there, simply because GWT is not
> careful about naming right now.  Also, all fields will probably need
> to get automatic getters and setters, because GWT input is arbitrary
> Java code.
>
> More  speculatively, GWT could also have a switch for Joe-E source
> files.  In such a mode, probably the automatic getters and setters
> would not be necessary.  That's a later project, though.  The first
> thing, it would seem, is to check whether GWT can be coaxed into
> emitting Caja at all.

Well, I'm just speculating since I don't know GWT internals at
all--but I guess translating Joe-E source would mean you can work
under tighter assumptions, and that might simplify this effort. In
other words, if you assume your input is valid Joe-E input, you can
avoid implementing GWT code to deal with translation (or rejection) of
non-Joe-E
Java. I have no idea how big that subset is.

> To firm up this view, I would next like to run GWT's output through
> the Cajoler and see what it says.  I could not  find a pre-built
> Cajoler last Friday, so I stopped for now.  When I find another time

Try the online translator: http://www.webcom.it/blog/online-caja-translator/

Bye,
 Andrea