Dart!

In October, Google released a new open source programming language for the web, Dart. It's meant to offer better performance, managability, & scalability over javascript for large web apps (think GMail or Google Docs).

- Dart allows for classes, interfaces, and looks familiar to anyone with experience in java, C#, or other object oriented languages.

- It can run in a VM, or be compiled as a javascript that will run in "modern browsers" (so far, Chrome, Safari 5+, and Firefox 4+).

- Has it's own IDE, Dart Editor (similar to Eclipse). Code completion, pointers to open declarations, class, method, and field outlining (see the Dart Editor Tutorial for screenshots).

I compiled some sample apps to give an idea of what it can do with HTML5 canvas:

Clock

Spirodraw

Sunflower

Here's what the sunflower class looks like.

While still in its infancy, looks like we'll be able to do some fun stuff with Dart and HTML5.