Jonathan, Niall & Ondrej,
I just scanned Ajaxian and found that there is a PHPJS project that is bringing the PHP library (somewhat analogous to the python Standard Library) to Javascript CommonJS. Interesting that they’re not porting the PHP language or control structures. Also interesting that they’re supporting CommonJS, as is SproutCore. Seems like CommonJS is getting a lot of traction these days.
Also, here’s some good in-depth reading on our target language: http://ajaxian.com/archives/ecma-262-3-in-detail
-- peter