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It got so popular because it was the only available language to do web scripting. It's not that complicated. It's easy to "win" when no competition is allowed.
by tachyonbeam 6y ago
It got so popular because it was the only available language to do web scripting. It's not that complicated. It's easy to "win" when no competition is allowed. You can argue that there's CoffeeScript, etc, but every other language is still a second-class citizen in the web ecosystem. WebAssembly may change that once it's stable and mature enough, though again, you have the problem that the DOM APIs were designed for JavaScript, which will create an impedance mismatch with other languages.
- webmaven 6y ago> WebAssembly may change that once it's stable and mature enough, though again, you have the problem that the DOM APIs were designed for JavaScript, which will create an impedance mismatch with other languages. Although the DOM itself likely isn't going anywhere unless you manage to swap out HTML, an alternate set of APIs might be achievable. That said, the impedance mismatch would have to be particularly painful for a domain targeted by another language for such a set to gain traction.