I agree Python is the better language, but they have quite different origin stories. JavaScript was thrown together in very short order, and has gradually evolv

I agree Python is the better language, but they have quite different origin stories. JavaScript was thrown together in very short order, and has gradually evolved since then. It was a good enough first-to-market scripting language for the browser, got standardised, and has been the client-side scripting language of the web ever since. It's evolved somewhat since its early days but is backward compatible. If I understand correctly, Python had a more considered initial design, and had a clean-break overhaul in Python3, allowing it to evolve without accumulating as much cruft and inconsistency. (Python is famous for its philosophy of there should be one—and preferably only one—obvious way to do it.) People use Python by choice: unlike JavaScript where browsers support no other scripting languages, Python won out over its rivals in fair contest. All things considered, JavaScript isn't that bad. Used correctly it can be elegant and powerful. It has some nasty dark corners, but it generally provides all you need to avoid them, if you know your way around. With modern JIT engines it can even be pretty fast. Its curious use of doubles is just the kind of thing modern JIT engines are able to be smart about, compiling down to use integer operations where possible.