A BASIC descendant (VBScript) very nearly did become the scripting language of the Web. If it had gone that way, I'd like to think that I would tolerate it and

A BASIC descendant (VBScript) very nearly did become the scripting language of the Web. If it had gone that way, I'd like to think that I would tolerate it and write useful apps with it, as long as it didn't mean that Microsoft would have lasting control over the spread and evolution of the Web platform.