5 ms·

Largest cost of JavaScript is having to write JavaScript. It’s insane anybody would willingly do that nowadays. I think literally everybody writing JavaScript s

Largest cost of JavaScript is having to write JavaScript. It’s insane anybody would willingly do that nowadays. I think literally everybody writing JavaScript secretly wishes they were using some other language with JS transpiler. I refuse to believe anybody can honestly say they want to write JavaScript code unless it’s code that makes them write less javascript in future.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
vturner 7y ago
Come around where I work... People actually enjoy the migraine that is web app development.
- keymone 7y ago
  I’m sure that’s true.. for some definitions of “enjoy” that involve no pleasure or happiness :)
NohatCoder 7y ago
I have yet to find a better package, when you transpile, debugging always has that funky thing with two different source codes where you wrote one and the other is what is running. And it is not like you can do anything that you can't do in JavaScript, either you have a feature subset, or you ship with a library that the transpiler attached.
- blunte 7y ago
  You miss the point. The issue isn't whether it's nicer to use a transpiled-to-JS language or JS itself. The issue is that JS as the root is an unfortunate situation, and there are so many other languages that would be superior. Just look at the history of JavaScript. It does not deserve the attention or human time that it currently gets (compared to other languages, assuming we could all decide simultaneously to replace JavaScript with another language).
  - saagarjha 7y ago
    Before JavaScript it was Java: the languages that people end up using are the ones that will get billions of dollars invested into them.
  - hombre_fatal 7y ago
    I have a hard time justifying using any other dynamically-typed language over JS. And JS' static typing story is pretty mature. And it has cool features like async-everything and a first-class Promise. So, let's not be too extreme here just because you don't like something. It gets really silly to hear HNers suggest the equivalent of "I don't understand how people own blue cars. They must secretly aspire to drive $myFavoriteColor. Don't they realize how stupid blue looks to me?"
dang 7y ago
Please don't take HN threads into programming language flamewars. We don't want those here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

vturner 7y ago

Come around where I work... People actually enjoy the migraine that is web app development.

keymone 7y ago
I’m sure that’s true.. for some definitions of “enjoy” that involve no pleasure or happiness :)

NohatCoder 7y ago

I have yet to find a better package, when you transpile, debugging always has that funky thing with two different source codes where you wrote one and the other is what is running. And it is not like you can do anything that you can't do in JavaScript, either you have a feature subset, or you ship with a library that the transpiler attached.

blunte 7y ago
You miss the point. The issue isn't whether it's nicer to use a transpiled-to-JS language or JS itself. The issue is that JS as the root is an unfortunate situation, and there are so many other languages that would be superior. Just look at the history of JavaScript. It does not deserve the attention or human time that it currently gets (compared to other languages, assuming we could all decide simultaneously to replace JavaScript with another language).
- saagarjha 7y ago
  Before JavaScript it was Java: the languages that people end up using are the ones that will get billions of dollars invested into them.
- hombre_fatal 7y ago
  I have a hard time justifying using any other dynamically-typed language over JS. And JS' static typing story is pretty mature. And it has cool features like async-everything and a first-class Promise. So, let's not be too extreme here just because you don't like something. It gets really silly to hear HNers suggest the equivalent of "I don't understand how people own blue cars. They must secretly aspire to drive $myFavoriteColor. Don't they realize how stupid blue looks to me?"

dang 7y ago

Please don't take HN threads into programming language flamewars. We don't want those here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html