Ringo is a CommonJS-based JavaScript runtime written in Java and based on the Mozilla Rhino JavaScript engine. It takes a pragmatical and non-dogmatic stance on things like I/O paradigms. Blocking and asynchronous I/O both have their strengths and weaknesses in different areas.

Its aim is to provide an off-browser JavaScript platform that has the right mix of features and simplicity to be pleasant to work with and easy to deploy. The primary goal is to build a stable, high-performance runtime for server-side use. The following code is all you need to create a simple web app:

exports.app = function(req) {
    return {
        status: 200,
        headers: {"Content-Type": "text/plain"},
        body: ["Hello World!"]
    };
};

if (require.main == module)
    require("ringo/httpserver").main(module.id);

Simply save the code above as "server.js" and run it by executing ringo server.js. Like most Ringo apps, this app will automatically reload, picking up any changes you make without requiring a restart.

But Ringo lets you do more than write web applications. It allows you to seamlessly use any Java class or library simply by dropping it into the classpath. This makes it easy to integrate Ringo into existing Java environments and reusing existing Java code works without lots of effort or porting issues.

Get the RingoJS 0.9 release here: ringojs.org/download

Get Started or the documentation page to learn more about Ringo.

Changelog for RingoJS 0.9

Release date: 2 January 2013

New features and major changes

• new ringo/worker module; a Worker API based on W3C Web Workers
  • http://hns.github.com/2011/11/16/workers.html
  • worker examples in /examples/ directory of ringo release
• new net module; provides support for networking using TCP and UDP sockets.
• shutdown hooks in ringo/engine
• new layout and design for JsDoc tool ringo-doc
• split ringo.jar into ringo-core.jar (java classes) and ringo-modules.jar (js modules)
• ringo/httpclient now based on java.net.URL (ringo/httpclient API unchanged but Client constructor removed)
• pluggable module loaders; more info: https://github.com/ringo/ringojs/commit/20eee6739da7c69bf93c19d544abc2896df6b7a5
• Java and JavaScript EventAdapters

Other changes and bugfixes

• system module is no longer preloaded
• remove obsolete and/or obscure global functions: doctest, loadClass, readFile, readUrl, runCommand, toint32, trycatch, enterAsyncTask, exitAsyncTask
• setTimeout() / setInterval() are now global; ringo/scheduler removed
• Semaphore moved into new module ringo/concurrent
• return absolute path in module.resolve() if resource is a file
• ringo/promise callbacks return a promises chain (as they're supposed to)
• renamed ringo/promise exports defer to Deferred and promises to PromiseList
• ringo_config property renamed to app in JSGI request
• fs.touch() now creates an empty file if no directory or file at the given path exists
• fs.listDirectoryTree(), fs.listTree(), fs.Path.listPaths() return sorted results
• force String return values for fs.owner() and fs.group()
• avoid unwanted reconfiguration in ringo/logger
• global works now with sealed globals
• updated mustache.js to support dot notation
• ringo-admin could not remove downloaded files on Windows
• -m/--modules option accepts multiple paths seperated with path.seperator

Contributors

• Andreas Bolka
• Jim Cook
• Robert Gaggl
• Philipp Naderer
• Simon Oberhammer
• Tim Schaub
• Hannes Wallnöfer

2.1.2013, 16:57