Seeing these types of experiments are always interesting but just like CoffeeScript it requires learning two languages instead of one [so you an debug] which makes it a hard sale. Why not just write clean JavaScript? I know many want to make JavaScript the assembly language of the web but JavaScript is so much more complex than assembly I'm not sure that's necessarily a good goal to have.
Granted I would love for more languages to be usable on the web; even if I thought JavaScript was the best language it's always good to have competition and alternatives. But I think that has to come through browser support. I wonder how feasible it would be to generate some sort of byte code similar to how Java and others work with the JVM.
I wish a fraction of the effort going into "fixing" javascript went into fixing the real abomination: the DOM API (and CSS). Then everyone would benefit, even people using Dart, Coffeescript, and TypeScript.
I wish people would just realize that JavaScript isn't going anywhere and make the effort to understand it instead of trying to gloss over the quirks of it.
Understanding the key parts of writing JS (closures, scope, GC, etc.) isn't all that hard and it seems like more efforts are geared towards an abstraction layer and/or framework than just learning the language in the first place.
I think it's syntax and familiar looking and feeling environment cheerfully misleads people into thinking they are in a comfort zone, while they thrash around throwing sand in their own eyes, albeit with a familiar looking bucket and shovel.
Granted I would love for more languages to be usable on the web; even if I thought JavaScript was the best language it's always good to have competition and alternatives. But I think that has to come through browser support. I wonder how feasible it would be to generate some sort of byte code similar to how Java and others work with the JVM.