4 ms·

The author makes two decent points: 1. Javascript popularity is tied to web popularity 2. Web popularity is shrinking But he makes it in such a histrionic wa

The author makes two decent points: 1. Javascript popularity is tied to web popularity 2. Web popularity is shrinking But he makes it in such a histrionic way that it's hard to focus on that over his bombast. You can sound the alarms over almost any language if you want too, it's fun but hardly informative. Java - only for companies that don't want to be agile Python - Great for hacking on the weekends, but no killer use case Ruby - Only has Rails, and the web is shrinking Haskell/Scala/Whatever - Never gonna break out of a university These are well worn arguments that don't really capture that jobs and companies tech stacks are much more nuanced than these simple statements. If you care about code, you'll find work, no matter what language beguiled you first. If anything, Javascript hasn't beguiled a generation of developers, the web has. And if we move on from the web, we'll move on from JS, and as long as we care about what's next, we'll thrive.

losteric 10y ago
The author also ignores what I consider to be Javascript's strongest trait: It works everywhere and does everything. Shipping JS with every browser means there is no barrier for entry. Sure the syntax is pretty meh, the community is disorganized, performance is OK, and there are a lot of poorly written libraries out there... but it's downright amazing how much surface Javascript+Browser covers. WebGL, WebVR, WebCL, WebRTC, hell even just the out-of-the-box cross-platform UI. Install Node and you get access to all the systems stuff as well. It's my job to write Ruby and I love the language. I also really enjoyed C++ and Python... but Javascript is now my go-to language outside of work. It's amazing, it's like it was made for hacking.
- k__ 10y ago
  1. The JavaScript ecosystem is open 2. JavaScript does about everything 3. There are many JavaScript developers 1. and 2. are enough for me and 3. is enough for most companies. JS is the next stage of the Web after PHP

losteric 10y ago

The author also ignores what I consider to be Javascript's strongest trait: It works everywhere and does everything. Shipping JS with every browser means there is no barrier for entry. Sure the syntax is pretty meh, the community is disorganized, performance is OK, and there are a lot of poorly written libraries out there... but it's downright amazing how much surface Javascript+Browser covers. WebGL, WebVR, WebCL, WebRTC, hell even just the out-of-the-box cross-platform UI. Install Node and you get access to all the systems stuff as well. It's my job to write Ruby and I love the language. I also really enjoyed C++ and Python... but Javascript is now my go-to language outside of work. It's amazing, it's like it was made for hacking.

k__ 10y ago
1. The JavaScript ecosystem is open 2. JavaScript does about everything 3. There are many JavaScript developers 1. and 2. are enough for me and 3. is enough for most companies. JS is the next stage of the Web after PHP