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The obvious reason is that Javascript is the only language that runs on most browsers (outside of Webassembly, which has its own limitations). If you want to do
by yen223 4y ago
The obvious reason is that Javascript is the only language that runs on most browsers (outside of Webassembly, which has its own limitations). If you want to do anything interesting on web browsers, you will have to deal with Javascript.
A more interesting question is, why is Javascript the language that all browsers support? Go back 20 years, and it wasn't actually obvious that Javascript would beat out Flash, or Java applets, or even VBScript to be the main way to get interactivity on websites.
- hollowturtle 4y agowasn’t obvious? I’m not sure, thanks god flash was killed, it was a security nightmare. java applets were a heavyweight punch in the face and vbscript… well is was vbscript. not even mentioning accessibility issues of the aforementioned. with javascript the open web won luckily for us
- physicles 4y agoI just had a terrifying vision of the alternate universe where VBScript became the lingua franca of the web. JavaScript isn’t perfect, but standardizing on VBScript would’ve been a catastrophic mistake.