4 ms·

I've recently been using it as part of CouchDB. It's really not a bad language. Some of the constructs are a little cumbersome, but it does just about everyth

I've recently been using it as part of CouchDB. It's really not a bad language. Some of the constructs are a little cumbersome, but it does just about everything you'd want a language at that level to do. With the V8 engine it really is pretty speedy, and you have the advantage of using the same language for your UI and your server-side processing.

cageface 16y ago
Sure. I have no doubt that it's capable. But that's not good enough. You have to be significantly better than an entrenched technology to displace it and the only thing I think server-side JS really has in its favor is that people will presumably already know Javascript and right now that just doesn't seem like enough of an advantage.
sreque 16y ago
As a language, I feel like Javascript decided to repeat half the mistakes Perl made and to tack on a few unique ones of its own. Supposedly the latest version, ECMAScript 3, improves on javascript a lot, but in the end I would pick Python or Ruby over javascript any day. The section about javascript at http://james-iry.blogspot.com/2009/05/brief-incomplete-and-mostly-wrong.html http://james-iry.blogspot.com/2009/05/brief-incomplete-and-m... is funny because it is true! It's too bad that Javascript has become the assembly of the web. I've found GWT to be a terribly leaky abstraction. I've watched as projects like HotRuby stalled and faded. And I've seen projects like the scala version of j2js grapple with performance issues such as inefficient method call overhead in current javascript implementations. I really believe that javascript at this point is holding back progress on the web. I really hope something like google's NACL succeeds where all the other RIA frameworks have failed. To do so, it is going to have to integrate with the browser much better than applets, flash, etc, but if it succeeds it could allow for a multi-language renaissance on the client that would benefit everyone and force javascript to actually compete with the rest of the PL world.
- puredemo 16y ago
  Reading up on the NACL project now. Amazing stuff.
- weixiyen 16y ago
  I love Python the language and all the great libraries that come with it. The reason I chose JavaScript for server side has a lot to do with V8. Also, if you follow best practices for coding styles and use JSLint, javascript is very powerful.

cageface 16y ago

Sure. I have no doubt that it's capable. But that's not good enough. You have to be significantly better than an entrenched technology to displace it and the only thing I think server-side JS really has in its favor is that people will presumably already know Javascript and right now that just doesn't seem like enough of an advantage.

sreque 16y ago

As a language, I feel like Javascript decided to repeat half the mistakes Perl made and to tack on a few unique ones of its own. Supposedly the latest version, ECMAScript 3, improves on javascript a lot, but in the end I would pick Python or Ruby over javascript any day. The section about javascript at http://james-iry.blogspot.com/2009/05/brief-incomplete-and-mostly-wrong.html http://james-iry.blogspot.com/2009/05/brief-incomplete-and-m... is funny because it is true! It's too bad that Javascript has become the assembly of the web. I've found GWT to be a terribly leaky abstraction. I've watched as projects like HotRuby stalled and faded. And I've seen projects like the scala version of j2js grapple with performance issues such as inefficient method call overhead in current javascript implementations. I really believe that javascript at this point is holding back progress on the web. I really hope something like google's NACL succeeds where all the other RIA frameworks have failed. To do so, it is going to have to integrate with the browser much better than applets, flash, etc, but if it succeeds it could allow for a multi-language renaissance on the client that would benefit everyone and force javascript to actually compete with the rest of the PL world.

puredemo 16y ago
Reading up on the NACL project now. Amazing stuff.
weixiyen 16y ago
I love Python the language and all the great libraries that come with it. The reason I chose JavaScript for server side has a lot to do with V8. Also, if you follow best practices for coding styles and use JSLint, javascript is very powerful.