Does Windows 8 Compile JavaScript?

Question

It is exciting that Windows 8 is supporting so many languages for Metro App development. One that especially interested me was the HTML5/CSS/JavaScript. What I don't understand, is this code going to get compiled in a sort of executable (like the C#, VB, and C++ option), or would my app basically be running in IE as an actual web page?

Answer 1

Yes. Javascript is executed on Windows 8 by the Chakra engine. Similar to the .NET just-in-time compiler, it translates javascript to optimized machine code. Also the approach taken by Google's V8 and Mozilla's TraceMonkey engines. Some background info is here.