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>JavaScript is objectively a bad language JavaScript is not objectively bad. I have 30 years experience programming in probably 15 languages and both formal an
by SomeCallMeTim 10y ago
>JavaScript is objectively a bad language
JavaScript is not objectively bad. I have 30 years experience programming in probably 15 languages and both formal and informal education in language theory to back that assertion up.
It's objectively not perfect, but then most languages have problems. There are a few regretful mistakes in the design, but they can be worked around by using programming style decisions enforced by a linter.
JavaScript has some of the most advanced features of languages available today, including lambdas, closures, and asynchronous coding patterns that make it faster at dealing with IO than naive C implementations.
Most of what sucks about using JavaScript is dealing with the DOM and browser differences in DOM implementations, but that's not JavaScript, that's just dealing with multiple browser platforms. Which you don't have to do in Node or Electron.
>"JavaScript hate is so 2010" is a cheap redirect of actual criticisms
No, it was a cheap comeback at substance-free hate directed at the language. If you want to argue details, read JavaScript, The Good Parts (or watch the YouTube video of the same name), and get back to me with what parts of JavaScript are actually, objectively bad. And in order to meet the "objectively" threshold, be sure to cite studies, because otherwise it's just your opinion.
- parent5446 10y agoI really don't feel like carrying on another JavaScript argument, so we'll just have to agree to disagree. > I have 30 years experience programming in probably 15 languages and both formal and informal education in language theory to back that assertion up. Although please come back when this becomes a true statement.
- SomeCallMeTim 10y ago>Although please come back when this becomes a true statement. That sir is uncalled for.
- wrl 10y ago> It's objectively not perfect, but then most languages have problems. Let me be clear here: JS is not really any better or any worse than any other interpreted languages. Yeah, I can name a few language-level problems (whoever decided that Promises should silently eat exceptions was wrong), but the big problems are not unique. Things like awful numeric performance (I've done crypto in JS), horrible multithreading support (Python and Ruby have GILs so it's roughly the same thing), etc etc. The difference is that JS/web programmers seem to be the only ones saying that things written in their language and platform of choice (JS/HTML/CSS webapps, inside or outside of Electron) are the future everybody wants. Like the ego-stroking whenever somebody posts a new Node or Electron tool that had no reason to be written in JS except that the developer just didn't want to use another language isn't weird. Like 123mb for a terminal emulator isn't ridiculous. Javascript brings nothing to the table except that it's the only language you can use for web programming. Nothing. The execution model is awful as well, since apparently in order to get any sort of decent performance in a webapp these days you need to maintain a shadow copy of the DOM just so you can hack around the browser's layout engine. > JavaScript has some of the most advanced features of languages available today, including lambdas, closures, and asynchronous coding patterns that make it faster at dealing with IO than naive C implementations. 30 years programming experience and you want to compare an interpreted language to a naïve C implementation? Come on. Did you see the Python libuv asyncio implementation that is 2x faster than the equivalent code running in Node [0]? Python, using Node's own supporting libraries (http-parser also) is better than Node at Node's own game. [0]: http://magic.io/blog/uvloop-blazing-fast-python-networking/ http://magic.io/blog/uvloop-blazing-fast-python-networking/