@MSFollower
You can implement JavaScript IN IL... Therefore IL is at least as powerful as JS. That aside, it's not a question of "power" per se, but appropriateness. I mean you could emit an entire IL VM in JavaScript and then execute IL code on it - it's technically possible - but it's insanely expensive and it's going to be a performance pig.
You could also emit a sequence of one to one subroutine calls to match the IL byte code, which improves performance, but will make things like reflection and self-emission very difficult.
What's needed isn't a way to turn .Net into HTML5 - what's needed is a good way to integrate them seamlessly across as many platforms as possible. .Net (in the form of Silverlight) does very complex things in a way that lets the developer implement systems very easily - HTML5 simply isn't there yet and, in my opinion, will never be there.
If Microsoft is actually pushing everyone to an "HTML5 is the ONLY way" model, as MJ notes, there will be a mutiny. Microsoft may like the idea of build-once/run-everywhere using HTML5 even if it means living with some pretty severe limitations - but WE (ie: the people who make the apps that run on Windows) do not and we've made that very clear.
Not everyone wants to be a web designer - and not every *likes* how the web is built. It's a massive, rickety scaffolding on which to build solid end-user oriented applications.
I'll switch to MacOS (ObjC/Cocoa) or Android (Java) before I'll switch to HTML5. I'm building serious apps, not toys to keep the masses entertained.
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