A node.js layer for TenFourFox's Javascript engine

[cellularmitosis]

Heyo!

I used Claude Code to vibe-code a Node.js layer on top of TenFourFox's "IonPower" Javascript JIT runtime.

GitHub - cellularmitosis/ionpower-node: Node-compatible JS runtime for PowerPC OS X Tiger using TenFourFox's IonPower JIT

Node-compatible JS runtime for PowerPC OS X Tiger using TenFourFox's IonPower JIT - cellularmitosis/ionpower-node

github.com

Progress is coming along nicely -- at this point you can run a basic express.js chat server:

It is still pretty early though -- I haven't even tried to run npm against it yet.

If you want to play around with it, here's the simplest install path. Run this from any G3, G4, or G5 running Tiger or Leopard:

sudo mkdir -p /opt
sudo chmod ugo+rwx /opt
cd /opt
curl http://leopard.sh/binpkgs/gcc-libs-4.9.4.tiger.g3.tar.gz | gunzip | tar x
ln -s gcc-libs-4.9.4 gcc-4.9.4
curl http://leopard.sh/dist/ca-certificates-20230110.tar.gz | gunzip | tar x
curl http://leopard.sh/misc/beta/mozjs-45-ionpower-g3.tar.gz | gunzip | tar x
curl http://leopard.sh/misc/beta/ionpower-node-0.85-g3-ppc.tar.gz | gunzip | tar x
cd /opt/ionpower-node-0.85/bin
./node ../share/ionpower-node/demos/express-chat/server.js

 

[srp]

Cool project! I looked through the code and noticed there's quite a bit of compatibility shimming and bandaid-style work going on. The scope seems narrow enough for now, but with this kind of design, every package becomes an implicit spec test, and some of the approximations like async `fs` seem like they could get brittle pretty quickly. Beyond just a few curated demos or some self-contained tools, are there any other use cases here that I might be missing?

Either way, it's an interesting and creative way to make use of Dr. Kaiser's JIT. Thanks for the release!

 

[cellularmitosis]

Thanks! Yeah, this is still in the "patch it up to see if this is even possible" phase. The next step would be coming up with an npm-like solution, so that people can actually use it the way they would expect.