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Node is JavaScript and JavaScript is roughly the same age as Java and is, I think it's reasonable to say, at least as successful and long-lived. I'd be willing

Node is JavaScript and JavaScript is roughly the same age as Java and is, I think it's reasonable to say, at least as successful and long-lived. I'd be willing to believe it'll actually outlast Java, as JavaScript has been accelerating in adoption and its deployment footprint (by that I mean the variety of places it is deployed), while Java seems to be popular but pretty stable. So, maybe I just don't understand what you're suggesting. JavaScript may be the most successful language in history; it wouldn't surprise me to find that there's more lines of code in JavaScript today than any other language (possibly by a wide margin), even counting the billions of lines of C/C++ code out there that we don't see because it never makes it to Github or whatever. If it's not true today, it seems likely to be true within a few years.

chii 9y ago
> JavaScript may be the most successful language in history Which is interesting because it's not that good a language, but circumstances and "luck" put it in the position it's in. Not unlike a lot of successful companies.
- SwellJoe 9y ago
  The language may not be great, but the platform (where "platform" == "an ever-expanding pile of web technologies already deployed on billions of devices") is seemingly unbeatable.
jstimpfle 9y ago
I believe Javascript wasn't really "hot" for many years, also due to compatibility problems. And there have been no alternatives for a long time. Although I'm strongly anti-OO and hate Java with a passion for going all-OO, Java is a much better designed language than Javascript. And I think that sentiment is common enough that Javascript could become less relevant now that WebAssembly has entered the game.
- SwellJoe 9y ago
  I tend to think JavaScript is the "next Java": It's nobody's favorite language, but it's the one that many, many, many projects and businesses settle on as a compromise on popularity, availability of talent, quality of tooling, options for deployment, etc. And, I would disagree with you on Java being a "much better designed language". I enjoy coding in JavaScript a lot more than Java and always have (even though neither is my favorite), and historic Java had tons of misfeatures, too. Both have evolved in very good directions, but I think JavaScript is evolving faster and in more interesting ways, partly because of its history of being an open platform vs. Java's Sun->Oracle guided path. Both also followed some dead ends...JavaScript, in particular, has always been a mess of warring factions, and the uncomfortable bolted-on feeling of some of the Java-like things it borrowed in the early days is particularly weird feeling in today's language. Coding in JavaScript feels like coding in three or four different languages. But, the thing as a whole isn't bad at all. It's extremely powerful and has become extremely concise in recent years (which has always been the biggest turn off for me with Java...so many damned lines of code, I just can't see the forest for all the trees). Edit: I agree that WebAssembly is going to shake things up, but it'll probably be many years before any language is as widespread as JavaScript on the web.

chii 9y ago

> JavaScript may be the most successful language in history Which is interesting because it's not that good a language, but circumstances and "luck" put it in the position it's in. Not unlike a lot of successful companies.

SwellJoe 9y ago
The language may not be great, but the platform (where "platform" == "an ever-expanding pile of web technologies already deployed on billions of devices") is seemingly unbeatable.

jstimpfle 9y ago

I believe Javascript wasn't really "hot" for many years, also due to compatibility problems. And there have been no alternatives for a long time. Although I'm strongly anti-OO and hate Java with a passion for going all-OO, Java is a much better designed language than Javascript. And I think that sentiment is common enough that Javascript could become less relevant now that WebAssembly has entered the game.

SwellJoe 9y ago
I tend to think JavaScript is the "next Java": It's nobody's favorite language, but it's the one that many, many, many projects and businesses settle on as a compromise on popularity, availability of talent, quality of tooling, options for deployment, etc. And, I would disagree with you on Java being a "much better designed language". I enjoy coding in JavaScript a lot more than Java and always have (even though neither is my favorite), and historic Java had tons of misfeatures, too. Both have evolved in very good directions, but I think JavaScript is evolving faster and in more interesting ways, partly because of its history of being an open platform vs. Java's Sun->Oracle guided path. Both also followed some dead ends...JavaScript, in particular, has always been a mess of warring factions, and the uncomfortable bolted-on feeling of some of the Java-like things it borrowed in the early days is particularly weird feeling in today's language. Coding in JavaScript feels like coding in three or four different languages. But, the thing as a whole isn't bad at all. It's extremely powerful and has become extremely concise in recent years (which has always been the biggest turn off for me with Java...so many damned lines of code, I just can't see the forest for all the trees). Edit: I agree that WebAssembly is going to shake things up, but it'll probably be many years before any language is as widespread as JavaScript on the web.