I find it surprising that javascript gets so much traction as a hidden jewel when really it's a pretty poor language compared to python, for instance. It starte

I find it surprising that javascript gets so much traction as a hidden jewel when really it's a pretty poor language compared to python, for instance. It started off being pooh-poohed (including by myself) by those who thought that it was some sort of cut-down 'scripting language' version of Java. Then Douglas Crockford pointed out that you could do closures in Javascript and it became kind of cool to praise Javascript. When I started using it (after programming in C, C++, Lisp, Java, Python, etc.) I discovered an interesting language but too many pain points (after the joy of python coding) to consider it anything special.