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And yet it is the most popular programming language in the world.. So maybe you're not exactly right. In the end it's not about what coders need it's what they

• int_19h 6y ago
  It's the most popular PL because it ships in every browser out there, and so you have to use it to do any front-end work. It doesn't really say anything about the quality of the language or its ecosystem.
  • neximo64 6y ago
    I agree with you its quality but what i'm saying is that didn't matter. And to counter on the browser bit, Rust/Go/C/etc can be compiled into Webassembly and yet its not thriving. Similarly on the backends Javascript is thriving too.
    • int_19h 6y ago
      wasm is still a very niche thing in terms of scenarios that it can cover. Things will be very different once there's a full-fledged native wasm browser API that is at least equivalent in power to what JS gets today. On the backends, it seems that the only reason why JS even made a foothold there is because it was on the front-end first, and because it had its performance optimized there (V8 etc) first. Node specifically pitched "same language for both front-end and back-end" back in the day. JS is kind of like C - it just has an immense first mover advantage by now, to the point where it's very hard to move forward from it. I hope wasm will be the holy grail in that regard... eventually.