4 ms·

Guys, JavaScript just isn't that bad.

danbruc 12y ago
No, it is even worse, PHP league bad. JavaScript was never intended for building complex applications. The same goes for HTML and CSS; the intention was to layout documents, not to build user interfaces. I fully acknowledge that this stack is the best we have when it comes to web applications. I fully acknowledge that it might take ages or even forever to get a better alternative than sweeping the ugliness under the rug and compiling from more sane platforms. But being the best solution available does not make it a good solution. We once build a small cabin in the mountains in the '90. Now we are running a hotel with a thousand rooms in and on top of that cabin.
- yarou 12y ago
  PHP is fine, if written properly and consciously. It's like blaming your chainsaw for maiming your limbs with improper use.
  - StavrosK 12y ago
    It's actually like blaming a chainsaw that has ten blades that spin around in unpredictable dimensions all the time and you can't turn it off. PHP isn't exactly an elegant butterfly of a language, that will make it hard for you to shoot yourself in the foot.
  - danbruc 12y ago
    Where is the difference to JavaScript? If you are careful enough, you can build nice stuff with JavaScript, too. That's the whole point of good language design - it must make it easy to express your intention and hard to make mistakes.
- sramsay 12y ago
  We once build a small cabin in the mountains in the '90. Now we are running a hotel with a thousand rooms in and on top of that cabin. And what exactly is wrong with that? Looks to me like the hotel is doing just fine. "Blub was never mean to do foo" is a statement that could be made with just about any language you can name. I also think that while it's true that HTML and CSS were not originally intended for building user interfaces, the vast ecosystem that surrounds JS is designed to do just that (among many other things). It's not JS anymore; it's thousands of well-written libraries, some of which transform the way you write in the language itself (and I'm not talking about things like Coffeescript, but things like Underscore).

No, it is even worse, PHP league bad. JavaScript was never intended for building complex applications. The same goes for HTML and CSS; the intention was to layout documents, not to build user interfaces. I fully acknowledge that this stack is the best we have when it comes to web applications. I fully acknowledge that it might take ages or even forever to get a better alternative than sweeping the ugliness under the rug and compiling from more sane platforms. But being the best solution available does not make it a good solution. We once build a small cabin in the mountains in the '90. Now we are running a hotel with a thousand rooms in and on top of that cabin.

yarou 12y ago
PHP is fine, if written properly and consciously. It's like blaming your chainsaw for maiming your limbs with improper use.
- StavrosK 12y ago
  It's actually like blaming a chainsaw that has ten blades that spin around in unpredictable dimensions all the time and you can't turn it off. PHP isn't exactly an elegant butterfly of a language, that will make it hard for you to shoot yourself in the foot.
- danbruc 12y ago
  Where is the difference to JavaScript? If you are careful enough, you can build nice stuff with JavaScript, too. That's the whole point of good language design - it must make it easy to express your intention and hard to make mistakes.
sramsay 12y ago
We once build a small cabin in the mountains in the '90. Now we are running a hotel with a thousand rooms in and on top of that cabin. And what exactly is wrong with that? Looks to me like the hotel is doing just fine. "Blub was never mean to do foo" is a statement that could be made with just about any language you can name. I also think that while it's true that HTML and CSS were not originally intended for building user interfaces, the vast ecosystem that surrounds JS is designed to do just that (among many other things). It's not JS anymore; it's thousands of well-written libraries, some of which transform the way you write in the language itself (and I'm not talking about things like Coffeescript, but things like Underscore).