6 ms·

"It is probably fair to say that JavaScript is the most important technology these days when it comes to software engineering." Uhh ... no?

sametmax 10y ago
+1 "JS is the only API we currently have to use one of the most popular plateform we have" would be more accurate. And it's a terrible API. I can't wait for webassembly.
- digi_owl 10y ago
  Could have sworn that webassembly is just a subset of JS.
  - Sean1708 10y ago
    You're thinking of ASM.js.
    - digi_owl 10y ago
      And the churn keeps on churning...
k__ 10y ago
Uhh ... yes. It didn't say it's the best, which it probably isn't.
- debaserab2 10y ago
  It's maybe fair to say it's the most important technology when it comes to web development. The software engineering world is much bigger than just web development, though.
  - SomeCallMeTim 10y ago
    JavaScript is important in: * Web Development is obvious, sure * Cross platform app development: React Native, NativeScript, Electron, nw.js, and others are extremely powerful, arguably among the best cross platform solutions, and all are gaining in popularity * Server development. NodeJS is hard to ignore because it's fast, easy to develop in, and has the amazing (if sometimes frustrating) NPM ecosystem. Software engineering is bigger than that trifecta, but you probably hit the 80% mark if you count all application, web, and server code development. JavaScript is making some inroads into embedded, but it's not as ideal for embedded work, except as a control language from the outside, so I'm not as bullish on JavaScript there. Throw in TypeScript and a good linter and you have a really strong, flexible, dynamic-yet-statically-typed environment that you can use to hit the (estimated) 80% mark. It really does live at a sweet spot in productivity and software engineering, if you ignore the anti-JavaScript snobs. [1] [1] Disclaimer: I was an anti-JavaScript snob as recently as about 5 years ago. My background is in games, drivers, C++, assembly language, several other scripting languages, and writing native apps. Things that changed include: 1) Me, in that I gave JavaScript, and later TypeScript a try, 2) I learned to love linters and transpilation, 3) The ecosystem exploded and the tools we have now, including VS Code and build tools like gulp, not to mention the built-in debuggers in every major browser, are now amazing, and 4) JavaScript and TypeScript themselves evolved and upgraded until they were actually both very good languages.
    - fnordsensei 10y ago
      I guess it comes down to what you mean by "important". I for one hope that airplanes, power plants and medical machinery are all programmed with something else.
      - lttlrck 10y ago
        If the author had said the same thing about <insert any language> that would have been wrong too...
        Skunkleton 10y ago
paulddraper 10y ago
Gosh, how do you even judge that.... If JS is super important, does that make C++ (the most common implementation language for JS runtimes) super-duper important? Willing to bet $100 that there are more projects developing with Git than JS. --- Actually wait...I GOT IT: the most important technology these days when it comes to software engineering is the microprocessor.

sametmax 10y ago

+1 "JS is the only API we currently have to use one of the most popular plateform we have" would be more accurate. And it's a terrible API. I can't wait for webassembly.

digi_owl 10y ago
Could have sworn that webassembly is just a subset of JS.
- Sean1708 10y ago
  You're thinking of ASM.js.
  - digi_owl 10y ago
    And the churn keeps on churning...

k__ 10y ago

Uhh ... yes. It didn't say it's the best, which it probably isn't.

debaserab2 10y ago
It's maybe fair to say it's the most important technology when it comes to web development. The software engineering world is much bigger than just web development, though.
- SomeCallMeTim 10y ago
  JavaScript is important in: * Web Development is obvious, sure * Cross platform app development: React Native, NativeScript, Electron, nw.js, and others are extremely powerful, arguably among the best cross platform solutions, and all are gaining in popularity * Server development. NodeJS is hard to ignore because it's fast, easy to develop in, and has the amazing (if sometimes frustrating) NPM ecosystem. Software engineering is bigger than that trifecta, but you probably hit the 80% mark if you count all application, web, and server code development. JavaScript is making some inroads into embedded, but it's not as ideal for embedded work, except as a control language from the outside, so I'm not as bullish on JavaScript there. Throw in TypeScript and a good linter and you have a really strong, flexible, dynamic-yet-statically-typed environment that you can use to hit the (estimated) 80% mark. It really does live at a sweet spot in productivity and software engineering, if you ignore the anti-JavaScript snobs. [1] [1] Disclaimer: I was an anti-JavaScript snob as recently as about 5 years ago. My background is in games, drivers, C++, assembly language, several other scripting languages, and writing native apps. Things that changed include: 1) Me, in that I gave JavaScript, and later TypeScript a try, 2) I learned to love linters and transpilation, 3) The ecosystem exploded and the tools we have now, including VS Code and build tools like gulp, not to mention the built-in debuggers in every major browser, are now amazing, and 4) JavaScript and TypeScript themselves evolved and upgraded until they were actually both very good languages.
  - fnordsensei 10y ago
    I guess it comes down to what you mean by "important". I for one hope that airplanes, power plants and medical machinery are all programmed with something else.
    - lttlrck 10y ago
      If the author had said the same thing about <insert any language> that would have been wrong too...
      - Skunkleton 10y ago

paulddraper 10y ago

Gosh, how do you even judge that.... If JS is super important, does that make C++ (the most common implementation language for JS runtimes) super-duper important? Willing to bet $100 that there are more projects developing with Git than JS. --- Actually wait...I GOT IT: the most important technology these days when it comes to software engineering is the microprocessor.