What has always bugged me about the whole mess that javascript is, is why don't we ratify a standard instruction set/byte code format, an ABI and API for the browser, as well as HTML extensions ( e.g comes to mind ) and then the browser vendors only have to implement that ( as well as a javascript interpreter on that compiles to it for backwards compatbility ) and we can all write compilers that target that instruction set and get access two a whole lot of language without the baggage that is javascript.... why is this a bad idea ( i am really asking because i think i must be overlooking something )