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Javascript gets used everywhere because it successfully commoditized programming. It requires very little knowledge to get it to work, so anybody can pick it up

by lj3 10y ago

Javascript gets used everywhere because it successfully commoditized programming. It requires very little knowledge to get it to work, so anybody can pick it up without much effort. For businesses, this means an endless supply of cheap labor. Most people here on HN and elsewhere believe this is a good thing. It furthers their dreams of programming becoming a basic literacy, like english and math. Keep in mind I don't agree with the above at all, but this is what a lot of people believe.

StavrosK 10y ago
> Javascript gets used everywhere because it successfully commoditized programming PHP would like a word.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
nottorp 10y ago
Reading "ElectronJS" is when i decided not to try this app. I don't need websites masquerading as desktop apps thank you.
- allover 10y ago
  That seems like a very irrational reason for not using an app.
cookiecaper 10y ago
I don't think that JavaScript did that. I think web development in general did that, and continues to do that. JavaScript is only contributing insofar as JavaScript-based backends are inexplicably now becoming more employable than some much better alternatives (which not too long ago I would've also been deriding, but they look beautiful compared to node). Until recently, and I know the "front-end devs" are going to have my head for this, but until recently, there was hardly any serious JavaScript coding going on even on the client-side. That means it wasn't something that a new developer would really stumble across and just start using to build full-fledged programs. JavaScript's main use was extending web widgets to do things slightly more conveniently. All the heavy lifting would be behind the scenes and JavaScript would watch you type so it could autotab for you. So I don't think the explanation that there was a vast knowledgebase eager to break into the backend is plausible. JavaScript was so disliked from horrifyingly frustrating exposure throughout the IE6 days that no one would go near the thing unless they were wrapped in the jQuery condom. John Resig was a hero of legendary bravery for biting the bullet and making JavaScript semi-usable. Someone had to write a book called "JavaScript: The Good Parts" that openly acknowledged JavaScript's inherent inferiority but tried to cheer us up by saying "Hey, I know we're stuck with this because browser vendors will never be able to agree on something else, but there are some hidden cool things about it! Don't cry!" Somehow in the last 5 years or so, JavaScript has gone from something that required a prophylactic device before anyone would approach it to something that real companies are writing production _DESKTOP_ applications in. What the heck happened? (I think The Good Parts is probably the real turning point here, where it became OK to treat JavaScript as a non-joke, and that V8 accelerated it. But people took Crockford's feel-good apologia and ran way past the finish line with it.)
- blub 10y ago
  If a company's doing web (as a lot are) they have processes and tools in place for that, so they would like to reuse them. These companies have also discovered that they can still hold on to most customers if they deliver merely adequate solutions. They will then naturally choose the convenient-for-them known quantity and dismiss concerns regarding usability, performance, etc. I don't see a real trend toward building apps using web technologies, but there is a lot of noise, making the topic seem larger than it is.

by lj3 10y ago

StavrosK 10y ago

> Javascript gets used everywhere because it successfully commoditized programming PHP would like a word.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

nottorp 10y ago

Reading "ElectronJS" is when i decided not to try this app. I don't need websites masquerading as desktop apps thank you.

allover 10y ago
That seems like a very irrational reason for not using an app.

cookiecaper 10y ago

I don't think that JavaScript did that. I think web development in general did that, and continues to do that. JavaScript is only contributing insofar as JavaScript-based backends are inexplicably now becoming more employable than some much better alternatives (which not too long ago I would've also been deriding, but they look beautiful compared to node). Until recently, and I know the "front-end devs" are going to have my head for this, but until recently, there was hardly any serious JavaScript coding going on even on the client-side. That means it wasn't something that a new developer would really stumble across and just start using to build full-fledged programs. JavaScript's main use was extending web widgets to do things slightly more conveniently. All the heavy lifting would be behind the scenes and JavaScript would watch you type so it could autotab for you. So I don't think the explanation that there was a vast knowledgebase eager to break into the backend is plausible. JavaScript was so disliked from horrifyingly frustrating exposure throughout the IE6 days that no one would go near the thing unless they were wrapped in the jQuery condom. John Resig was a hero of legendary bravery for biting the bullet and making JavaScript semi-usable. Someone had to write a book called "JavaScript: The Good Parts" that openly acknowledged JavaScript's inherent inferiority but tried to cheer us up by saying "Hey, I know we're stuck with this because browser vendors will never be able to agree on something else, but there are some hidden cool things about it! Don't cry!" Somehow in the last 5 years or so, JavaScript has gone from something that required a prophylactic device before anyone would approach it to something that real companies are writing production _DESKTOP_ applications in. What the heck happened? (I think The Good Parts is probably the real turning point here, where it became OK to treat JavaScript as a non-joke, and that V8 accelerated it. But people took Crockford's feel-good apologia and ran way past the finish line with it.)

blub 10y ago
If a company's doing web (as a lot are) they have processes and tools in place for that, so they would like to reuse them. These companies have also discovered that they can still hold on to most customers if they deliver merely adequate solutions. They will then naturally choose the convenient-for-them known quantity and dismiss concerns regarding usability, performance, etc. I don't see a real trend toward building apps using web technologies, but there is a lot of noise, making the topic seem larger than it is.