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The fact that everything you said is true makes JavaScript an even more amazing language. How many languages could survive 15 years without change and still rem

by maratd 15y ago

The fact that everything you said is true makes JavaScript an even more amazing language. How many languages could survive 15 years without change and still remain relevant? And not only relevant, but expand their influence? Certainly this is mostly due to its unique position on the browser, but the language had to be flexible enough to fill that role and more. That's amazing.

jerf 15y ago
I agree, except that "without change" is a bit strong. Still, the basic structure is all there from the beginning, and while warty it has managed to support some non-trivial apps. I'd count it a win overall for the author, in a very tough field.
Someone 15y ago
IMO, it accomplishes this not as much by being good, as by being a parasite that infects web browsers. At that, it is so good that some people think the DOM and JavaScript are in a symbiotic relationship. Yes, that is tongue-in-cheek, but without JavaScript, web browsers would have found another language; without web browsers, JavaScript would long have been forgotten.
- maratd 15y ago
  > IMO, it accomplishes this not as much by being good, as by being a parasite that infects web browsers. My memory is a bit foggy, but I recall Microsoft throwing a bunch of things at the browser in the beginning. You can specify the language in the script tag. VBScript anyone? It wasn't like JavaScript didn't have competition ... it just won a very long time ago.
  - Someone 15y ago
    In my memory, JavaScript won because it had market penetration, it did not get market penetration because it won. It had market penetration because it was included with Netscape Navigator. Yes, it also was good enough at that time, but almost anything would have been, in a time where a ten-line script was huge. I do not think that it would have won against say VBScript if the latter would have been available on the same set of browsers.
  - chc 15y ago
    Microsoft threw one other language into Internet Explorer, and as far as I can recall didn't push it any harder than JavaScript. No other scripting language was ever implemented in any other browser. To call VBScript a competitor is being overly generous. JavaScript was really the only option for DHTML.
mattmanser 15y ago
Huh? It's the only language that works on browsers. That's how it got 'amazing'.
munificent 15y ago
> How many languages could survive 15 years without change and still remain relevant? And not only relevant, but expand their influence? I can think of one other, and for the same reason: make. Both languages are still around because it's near impossible to replace them, no matter how much they may suck. They aren't timeless, they're calcified by being a part of some infrastructure that exists on millions of machines.

by maratd 15y ago

jerf 15y ago

I agree, except that "without change" is a bit strong. Still, the basic structure is all there from the beginning, and while warty it has managed to support some non-trivial apps. I'd count it a win overall for the author, in a very tough field.

Someone 15y ago

IMO, it accomplishes this not as much by being good, as by being a parasite that infects web browsers. At that, it is so good that some people think the DOM and JavaScript are in a symbiotic relationship. Yes, that is tongue-in-cheek, but without JavaScript, web browsers would have found another language; without web browsers, JavaScript would long have been forgotten.

maratd 15y ago
> IMO, it accomplishes this not as much by being good, as by being a parasite that infects web browsers. My memory is a bit foggy, but I recall Microsoft throwing a bunch of things at the browser in the beginning. You can specify the language in the script tag. VBScript anyone? It wasn't like JavaScript didn't have competition ... it just won a very long time ago.
- Someone 15y ago
  In my memory, JavaScript won because it had market penetration, it did not get market penetration because it won. It had market penetration because it was included with Netscape Navigator. Yes, it also was good enough at that time, but almost anything would have been, in a time where a ten-line script was huge. I do not think that it would have won against say VBScript if the latter would have been available on the same set of browsers.
- chc 15y ago
  Microsoft threw one other language into Internet Explorer, and as far as I can recall didn't push it any harder than JavaScript. No other scripting language was ever implemented in any other browser. To call VBScript a competitor is being overly generous. JavaScript was really the only option for DHTML.

mattmanser 15y ago

Huh? It's the only language that works on browsers. That's how it got 'amazing'.

munificent 15y ago

> How many languages could survive 15 years without change and still remain relevant? And not only relevant, but expand their influence? I can think of one other, and for the same reason: make. Both languages are still around because it's near impossible to replace them, no matter how much they may suck. They aren't timeless, they're calcified by being a part of some infrastructure that exists on millions of machines.