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I wouldn't lump JavaScript / Node.js with the other interpreted languages. While it may look similar on the surface, JS has an advantage over most other languag

I wouldn't lump JavaScript / Node.js with the other interpreted languages. While it may look similar on the surface, JS has an advantage over most other languages: It's used in browsers, and as such, there's an arms race between 4 very large companies to make their browser the fastest, resulting in enormous amounts of effort being made in making JS faster. While it's never going to match compiled languages like C or Go, it's definitely the fastest interpreted language out there; I've seen studies putting it in the same order of magnitude as C (i.e it's 2x slower, not 10x). Moreover, its concurrency model (callbacks / event handlers) makes it uniquely suited to handle IO-bound workloads easily, which is 99% of the web nowadays (getting a request, sending a query to the database, and sending the reponse back).

10000truths 4y ago
That’s only relevant for browser side JS, though. V8 has a monopoly on server side JS. It’s quite slow on its own, but the bloat that people pile on top of it makes it even slower. And V8 is definitely not “the fastest” interpreted language - I have found that LuaJIT performs much better for my scripting needs.
- CharlesW 4y ago
  > And V8 is definitely not “the fastest” interpreted language - I have found that LuaJIT performs much better for my needs. According to a 2021 performance test¹, Lua with LuaJIT is slower than JavaScript with V8. Note that the "quite slow" JavaScript running on V8 is nearly as fast as Java. ¹ https://eklausmeier.goip.de/blog/2021/07-13-performance-comparison-c-vs-java-vs-javascript-vs-luajit-vs-pypy-vs-php-vs-python-vs-perl/ https://eklausmeier.goip.de/blog/2021/07-13-performance-comp...
- emilecantin 4y ago
  Yeah, but V8 is Chrome's engine, which _is_ in competition for fastest engine against Safari, Firefox & Edge (although Edge isn't much of a competitor anymore).
frazbin 4y ago
The event loop is the original sin of node.js.. I feel like you either fight the broken concurrency model at every step, or you slip beneath the waves. The fact that languages like erlang have been around forever makes it a real slap in the face.
- emilecantin 4y ago
  I don't know erlang, but honestly it's much easier to grasp / easier to avoid footguns with callbacks than threads. The main "issue" is callback pyramids when you have a lot of dependent callbacks, but that's solved relatively easily with Promises, and even easier with async / await.
  - mkss 4y ago
    It's not a binary choice between runloop with callbacks or threads, that's why you should probably take the time to learn about Erlangs actor model implementation, which Dart's Isolates also implement to some degree.
btbuildem 4y ago
> Moreover, its concurrency model JS is a single-threaded language, there is no concurrency

10000truths 4y ago

That’s only relevant for browser side JS, though. V8 has a monopoly on server side JS. It’s quite slow on its own, but the bloat that people pile on top of it makes it even slower. And V8 is definitely not “the fastest” interpreted language - I have found that LuaJIT performs much better for my scripting needs.

CharlesW 4y ago
> And V8 is definitely not “the fastest” interpreted language - I have found that LuaJIT performs much better for my needs. According to a 2021 performance test¹, Lua with LuaJIT is slower than JavaScript with V8. Note that the "quite slow" JavaScript running on V8 is nearly as fast as Java. ¹ https://eklausmeier.goip.de/blog/2021/07-13-performance-comparison-c-vs-java-vs-javascript-vs-luajit-vs-pypy-vs-php-vs-python-vs-perl/ https://eklausmeier.goip.de/blog/2021/07-13-performance-comp...
emilecantin 4y ago
Yeah, but V8 is Chrome's engine, which _is_ in competition for fastest engine against Safari, Firefox & Edge (although Edge isn't much of a competitor anymore).

frazbin 4y ago

The event loop is the original sin of node.js.. I feel like you either fight the broken concurrency model at every step, or you slip beneath the waves. The fact that languages like erlang have been around forever makes it a real slap in the face.

emilecantin 4y ago
I don't know erlang, but honestly it's much easier to grasp / easier to avoid footguns with callbacks than threads. The main "issue" is callback pyramids when you have a lot of dependent callbacks, but that's solved relatively easily with Promises, and even easier with async / await.
- mkss 4y ago
  It's not a binary choice between runloop with callbacks or threads, that's why you should probably take the time to learn about Erlangs actor model implementation, which Dart's Isolates also implement to some degree.

btbuildem 4y ago

> Moreover, its concurrency model JS is a single-threaded language, there is no concurrency