I stumbled upon Leaningetch in the past looking for a way to compile Java to JavaScript. This is a company that found a niche in "modernizing" old software, like, serving customers that still have mission-critical software written as a C++/MFC or even Java Applets and help them keep that software alive.
There's nothing wrong with their niche, but I feel like there's a big disconnect to what could be attractive to the HN crowd. In particular:
> WebVM is released under the Apache License, Version 2.0 [...] free to use for technological exploration, testing and non-commercial uses. [...] If you want to build a product on top of CheerpX/WebVM, please get in touch: sales@leaningtech.com. [0]
Embarcadero is another company that releases great-looking tech but I would personally not want to dig too much into [1], because of the involved costs.
Hmm I missed your question but I just don’t think commercial, closed source compilers are a good idea. It seems they are doing good with their business models so I wouldn’t ask them to change anything, but I think it would be cool if the compilers and ide were free and they sold libraries.
In addition to your points, I can't figure out the licensing - they state that CheerpX is a commercial product, but I am unable to find any information about paid or free usage tiers... Or maybe I just didn't dig deep enough...
Not sure if this is for all the products but this is found on the main page.
Licensing
Cheerp is free open-source software, actively developed and maintained by Leaning Technologies. Commercial support, feature fast tracking, sponsored development and consulting packages are available for Enterprise customers.
The X version seems to be minified CDN hosted .js file but no other info about usage. The only comment in the file indicates that its some sort of C/C++ file presumable ported over to JS
/Compiled using Cheerp (R) by Leaning Technologies Ltd/
There's nothing wrong with their niche, but I feel like there's a big disconnect to what could be attractive to the HN crowd. In particular:
> WebVM is released under the Apache License, Version 2.0 [...] free to use for technological exploration, testing and non-commercial uses. [...] If you want to build a product on top of CheerpX/WebVM, please get in touch: sales@leaningtech.com. [0]
Embarcadero is another company that releases great-looking tech but I would personally not want to dig too much into [1], because of the involved costs.
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0: https://github.com/leaningtech/webvm?tab=readme-ov-file#lice...
1: https://www.embarcadero.com/