Look Who it Was Random video

Max Krohn: IcedCoffeeScript

1,259 views · Published 6 November 2012 · 26:28 · Indexed 1 October 2026

Channel: JSConf · 2012 · Science & Technology

Watch on YouTube

I cofounded OkCupid.com back in 2003. It was my fateful decision to base our whole stack on a single-threaded event-based library written in C++. It sucked; our code was stuffed with callback spaghetti and pyramids of death. But all of that changed when in 2006, we wrote the "Tame" system for C++, which we presented at USENIX ATC in 2007. This new system was compatible with the old code, but drastically improved our productivity by allowing straight-line code on either side of an a network call, much like threads supported all along.

Most JavaScript and CoffeeScript systems work like OkCupid's did in 2005. But two JavaScript systems I've written — TameJS and IcedCoffeeScript — change all of that. They bring the same language primitives to node.js and the browser that Tame brought to OkCupid's C++ libraries. These primitives are more powerful than threads and more manageable than hand-rolled callback code. If you give them a chance, they will make your JavaScript projects cleaner, more manageable, more parallel and therefore better performing.

For reuse of this video under a more permissive license please get in touch with us. The speakers retain the copyright for their performances.

More from this channel