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I think it's an exaggeration to say that design flaws in JavaScript are "horrible" and that they have caused billions of hours of work. Of course there are wart
by tylerhou 5y ago
I think it's an exaggeration to say that design flaws in JavaScript are "horrible" and that they have caused billions of hours of work. Of course there are warts in the language (e.g. everything gets cast to a string) but similar design issues have plagued other languages as well. It's not like JavaScript is unique in providing footguns.
And the language is operating in a different context than most other languages (prioritizing not breaking at all costs), so it is really hard to fix defects. That context would have been impossible to foresee.
- santiagobasulto 5y agoI agree. We all know that JS was not perfect (that's why we had to stick to "the good parts" for several years). But I think it was still elegant and concise and got the job done. Prototype based OOP, event-driven, etc were all very good decisions. And also, the argument that "made in 10 days and is horrible" is counter-factual. We don't know if we could have gotten a better language if they spent 1 year or 5 years. The achievement is impressive.
- spacemanmatt 5y agoIf 1-5 years more wouldn't guarantee a better outcome, he was the wrong candidate for that task in the first place.