> why do other languages that are arguably JavaScript competitors, like Ruby and Python, not have the same wide selection of alternate syntaxes and sugar packet

> why do other languages that are arguably JavaScript competitors, like Ruby and Python, not have the same wide selection of alternate syntaxes and sugar packets? Could it have something to do with the usability of the default dialect? Popularity, and the fact that things were very bare-bones before ES6. > If this truly bring us first-class support for non-JavaScripts (which won't be real until browser vendors either ship or make it transparent and automatic to install additional DOM bindings), I will be so happy Interop with existing JS code/data(structures) will still be a problem. Shipping (or rather, not re-shipping every single time the user vists) your favorite language's runtime and standard library will become a problem (which can be solved). By that time JS will be good enough to make it even less worth it, especially for dynamic/GCed languages. > the node buzz already kind of seems to be fizzling out and moving onto things like Go, so maybe we won't have to wait too long. This is true. There hasn't been anything new happening in node land for quite a while now, and the basic core platform is showing its age. With tools such as typescript, async/await and generators available, however, a revival is possible. TS tooling combined with a well designed and documented "core standard library" in the style of Dart's stdlib could make node a very nice platform again.