Nodebox: A Node.js runtime that runs in any browser

We created JavaScript to run complex code in the web browser.<p>This worked well, until someone went – hey, we should also use this cool language on the server side. So node.js was born, and it added extra APIs for stuff like filesystem access and web servers that the V8 sandbox didn&#x27;t allow.<p>Then someone went – hey, wouldn&#x27;t it be neat to run all this cool node.js code in the browser? So Nodebox and Webcontainers were born that wrote a compatibility layer and added pollyfills for all the node.js-specific APIs that were missing in V8, and so some of this code was able to run in the browser.<p>My question is – why couldn&#x27;t all this code run directly on the browser in the first place without Node.js and Nodebox?

I don&#x27;t know how I feel about this.<p>It is _technically_ cool but I feel like this existing is a definite step backwards with regards to Node.js&#x27; lack of modern web APIs.<p>Software like this relieves pressure in moving from Node.js specific APIs towards standardised web APIs and in addition to that itself boasts about portability by ignoring modern features too. From their WebContainer vs Nodebox FAQ:<p><pre><code> Nodebox runs on any browser because it was built from the ground up with cross-browser support in mind, avoiding modern features like SharedArrayBuffer.&quot; </code></pre> Link: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;sandpack.codesandbox.io&#x2F;docs&#x2F;resources&#x2F;faq#how-does-the-nodebox-compare-to-webcontainers" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;sandpack.codesandbox.io&#x2F;docs&#x2F;resources&#x2F;faq#how-does-...</a><p>So now we&#x27;ve got an escape hatch for Node.js not having to implement modern APIs because software like this implements its runtime for the browser, and also this same software removes pressure on browser vendors bringing their implementations up to webstandard specifications by &quot;... avoiding modern features&quot;.<p>While this is _technically_ cool I feel like it&#x27;s a lose-lose for the overall ecosystem.

Nodebox is already the name of a long lived creative coding tool, please change the name of this.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nodebox.net&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nodebox.net&#x2F;</a>

&gt;If you have heard about or used Sandpack, you probably know what it’s all about: running any JavaScript application directly in the browser.<p>I&#x27;ve been a full time JS full stack dev for maybe 8 years, and this sentence doesn&#x27;t make any sense to me.

So now we can run the JavaScript interpreter that was built to run outside the browser in the browser instead of JavaScript.<p>Finally.<p>(I’m actually kidding and don’t know anything about this project nor use cases. Just thought this was funny)

But... why? I don&#x27;t understand the benefit or business value of this at all, except for very specific niche cases like CodePen

Now run a browser version of Wayland so you can run Electron inside the browser. We must go deeper!

Looks like a interesting technology. I am not sure how capable it is, but this might mean, we could essentially have a full NodeJS build env running in the browser without having to have a container running in the background for web IDEs.<p>However, the complexity of this innovation just makes me want to scream into the void. I don&#x27;t want to touch the frontend toolchain at all, anymore. The layers of abstraction is seriously hurting my brain.

Rather confusing when here is already:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nodebox.net&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nodebox.net&#x2F;</a>

<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=34793858" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=34793858</a><p>FYI, stackblitz released something similar called web container.

We&#x27;ve gone full circle! Node.js, a javascript engine stolen from browsers, now re-implemented in browsers. But as a serious note, is the value proposition &quot;Less powerful version of Electron without forcing people to download a desktop app&quot;?

Maybe this is a dumb question, but the &quot;shell&quot; this sets up in which it runs &quot;node&quot; is just some VM in the browser, right? It&#x27;s not literally executing shell commands or opening ports on the host machine, is it?

Nice. Stackblitz did this first and this is a killer feature all fiddles now need

CodeSandbox is such a legit engineering org.<p>I always like to track their progress and this too is impressive, useful work.<p>My respect for this company runs so deep that I at one point considered approaching them to acquire my own company.

You know what? Fuck it. Just let any program run in the browser, but only if it could rune natively too. The new type of hardware acceleration. Play league of legends in a chrome tab. Just ship it.

the rise of FrontBackend Engineers

A counter project to Stackblitz&#x27;s web-containers?