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In this context, describing Crockford as “the inventor of JSON” is doing him a disservice. I’d argue he’s one of the key people who made JS a respectable langu

In this context, describing Crockford as “the inventor of JSON” is doing him a disservice. I’d argue he’s one of the key people who made JS a respectable language through “the good parts”. It’s not necessarily the specific suggestions that are relevant but he was responsible for making people recognize that yes, JS is highly flawed, and yet, you can use it as effectively as any of the other popular OOP languages at the time by focusing on “the good parts” and eliminating the “bad parts”. I believe (and don’t quote me on this) he also had a very popular linter that showed this distinction could be automated. The less popular part he added to the discourse was the idea that not only could JS: The good Parts be as good as the popular OOP languages of the time, but in fact it could be better because of the strong functional capabilities that JS had and languages like Java, C# and C++ either lacked or made cumbersome to use 15 years ago (and being a believer in functional programming I was one of those who appreciated JS because of this). So for him to say we should move away from JS, whether right or wrong, is a pretty big deal IMO.

threatofrain 2y ago
It's a big deal if you're saying Doug Crockford still has his finger in the pie, or that he still has deep connections to ecosystem, browser, or JS politics, and that a needle is about to cross a decision boundary. If you lead with that then that's all the credibility you need to say that Doug Crockford's position on JS is a big deal. IMO the WASM story might end up expanding to swallow JS, but Doug Crockford won't be making that happen any faster or slower. Google also tried to introduce Dart to the browser but experienced political whiplash. I don't think Doug Crockford can help that either, especially now that Google is extra afraid of regulatory attention.
- addicted 2y ago
  I don’t think Crockford will be leading the movement away from JS. But he was among the people most responsible for the movement to JS so for him to say JS has run its course is important even if he is wrong.

threatofrain 2y ago

It's a big deal if you're saying Doug Crockford still has his finger in the pie, or that he still has deep connections to ecosystem, browser, or JS politics, and that a needle is about to cross a decision boundary. If you lead with that then that's all the credibility you need to say that Doug Crockford's position on JS is a big deal. IMO the WASM story might end up expanding to swallow JS, but Doug Crockford won't be making that happen any faster or slower. Google also tried to introduce Dart to the browser but experienced political whiplash. I don't think Doug Crockford can help that either, especially now that Google is extra afraid of regulatory attention.

addicted 2y ago
I don’t think Crockford will be leading the movement away from JS. But he was among the people most responsible for the movement to JS so for him to say JS has run its course is important even if he is wrong.