# Transport layer issues

Issues preventing the adoption and scaling of datum/widget:

- non-standard module loader (amd modules)
  - datum/widget built before harmony modules
- non-functional API
  - queries are not composable
  - limited reuse of queries
- datum
  - only meant for XHR data requests
  - unable to run in Node.js
- widget framework
  - made opinionated and dated decisions
    - tied to specific technologies
    - imperative rather than declarative, preventing optimizations
  - specific to browser rendering target (ssr not possible)
  - built around `eval`ing arbitrary code
  - tied to a single table, limiting extensibility
  - unable to use existing modules/packages from js ecosystem
- http message encoding/decoding logic split/duplicated between python/javascript