Google Creates New Browser-Friendly Language
Google has announced the creation of a new programming language and indications are that it is intended for browser-based applications. Google is calling it a language for "structured web programming." 
Called Dart, the new language will be discussed by Google's Tech Lead Manager, Lars Bak, and Gilad Bracha, a Google software engineer in the keynote address at the Goto international software development conference on October 10.
Both engineers have experience working with Strongtalk, which has been touted as a major rethinking of and "fastest ever" virtual machine for Smalltalk-80 language and virtual machine, which is completely open source under a BSD-style license (a permissive free software license.)
Bak has been responsible for the design and implementation of V8, the accelerator that allows Chrome to be fast and other major projects, such as the aforementioned Smalltalk. Bracha, once a Sun employee, is the creator of the Newspeak programming language.and co-author of the Java Language Specification.
Though Dart is still very much under wraps, it will be interesting to see how it will be used over time. Many of Google's projects, though worthwhile, have come and gone in a puff of smoke, and that's true of many programming languages outside Google.
However, with so many applications designed to bring users into the cloud, Dart may be another step in taking users from the hard drive into the cybersphere. Of course, this is all speculation, since Google is keeping information about Dart under wraps until its unveiling.
Google's pilot launch of the CR-48 last year and its transition to the "Chromebook," which is now available to the public, have proven that wholly cloud-based computing can work and that it's just a matter of changing the way people think about drive-based computing. Dart could prove to be a boon to browser apps, with Chrome users being in the forefront to test them.
There are also mobile implications. Google's Android is becoming increasingly popular and it's apparent that Google is betting heavily on the mobile Web. However, applications that work on the Web may act differently on the mobile Web. Perhaps Dart will be the language to standardize programming for both cloud-based computing and the mobile phone.
Whatever Dart can do, we'll have to wait until October 10 to find out. Google is making sure that information remains secret for now.
What are your feelings about what Google's new language might do?
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