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I believe this is just the start. The more businesses move to SaaS models, automation takes a different shape as well, i.e automation scripts involving busines

I believe this is just the start. The more businesses move to SaaS models, automation takes a different shape as well, i.e automation scripts involving business objects within/outside the system. Most systems call them "custom scripts" - and the primary language of choice is Javascript. Why? Javascript engines have done a phenomenal job at sandboxing and extensions. So that'd be another reason why JS will live long as a language of choice of automating cloud objects.

onion2k 5y ago
and the primary language of choice is Javascript The primary language for business automation is VBA - Visual Basic for Applications. There's probably a decent opportunity building something to convert businesses existing Office VBA scripts to JS that works in online tools.
- jhgb 5y ago
  Sounds like the big problem here is the sheer API size rather than the language.
realrocker 5y ago
> The more businesses move to SaaS models, automation takes a different shape as well, i.e automation scripts involving business objects within/outside the system. Well put. I see this getting applied to cloud infrastructure too. Cloud providers are increasingly offering their products as pure software objects on which traditional software engineering principles can be applied. I have been experimenting with using typescript to define infra components for last 18 months and have seen higher code contributions from non-operators(most of them are typescript practitioners) w.r.t terrafrom or ansible. [slightly shameless plug] Recently started using Deno + typescript and its even better. My thoughts on this here: https://adnaan.badr.in/blog/2021/11/20/deno-for-infrastructure-as-code/ https://adnaan.badr.in/blog/2021/11/20/deno-for-infrastructu...
- andreineculau 5y ago
  I can double down on that. I have developed a pattern to use any language (but we used js/python) to generate cloudformation templates. This has started in 2016, long before CDK. The idea originated in GCP's docs where they present both jinja and plain python as a way to generate iac. I often got asked "what about terraform?" Yes, what about it? It is a +1 in our stack, lagged (maybe not now) behind cloudformation releases, it still doesn't give you the benefits of a proper programming language, let alone one that many are familiar with, and we will not have a multicloud problem in the foreseeable future. So yeah, what about it? In retrospect, there is a negative. The industry is brainwashed so looking for a new job becomes: but do you know terraform? Completely overlooking whether one could simply learn it :) it ain't rocket science
Toutouxc 5y ago
I don't see how SaaS automation relates to JavaScript being used for automation in macOS..? Or is it just an association that popped up in your head?
pjmlp 5y ago
SaaS automation tools are just the second coming of Biztalk and BPEL tools. Doing distributed computing since the late 90's feels like being part of groundhog day, every time a new stack comes along to solve all RPC problems.

onion2k 5y ago

and the primary language of choice is Javascript The primary language for business automation is VBA - Visual Basic for Applications. There's probably a decent opportunity building something to convert businesses existing Office VBA scripts to JS that works in online tools.

jhgb 5y ago
Sounds like the big problem here is the sheer API size rather than the language.

realrocker 5y ago

> The more businesses move to SaaS models, automation takes a different shape as well, i.e automation scripts involving business objects within/outside the system. Well put. I see this getting applied to cloud infrastructure too. Cloud providers are increasingly offering their products as pure software objects on which traditional software engineering principles can be applied. I have been experimenting with using typescript to define infra components for last 18 months and have seen higher code contributions from non-operators(most of them are typescript practitioners) w.r.t terrafrom or ansible. [slightly shameless plug] Recently started using Deno + typescript and its even better. My thoughts on this here: https://adnaan.badr.in/blog/2021/11/20/deno-for-infrastructure-as-code/ https://adnaan.badr.in/blog/2021/11/20/deno-for-infrastructu...

andreineculau 5y ago
I can double down on that. I have developed a pattern to use any language (but we used js/python) to generate cloudformation templates. This has started in 2016, long before CDK. The idea originated in GCP's docs where they present both jinja and plain python as a way to generate iac. I often got asked "what about terraform?" Yes, what about it? It is a +1 in our stack, lagged (maybe not now) behind cloudformation releases, it still doesn't give you the benefits of a proper programming language, let alone one that many are familiar with, and we will not have a multicloud problem in the foreseeable future. So yeah, what about it? In retrospect, there is a negative. The industry is brainwashed so looking for a new job becomes: but do you know terraform? Completely overlooking whether one could simply learn it :) it ain't rocket science

Toutouxc 5y ago

I don't see how SaaS automation relates to JavaScript being used for automation in macOS..? Or is it just an association that popped up in your head?

pjmlp 5y ago

SaaS automation tools are just the second coming of Biztalk and BPEL tools. Doing distributed computing since the late 90's feels like being part of groundhog day, every time a new stack comes along to solve all RPC problems.