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So disclaimer I'm a little biased towards Node. It brings me tremendous philosophical zeal. You're right about server-side JavaScript-- there are so many more
by mikermcneil 12y ago
So disclaimer I'm a little biased towards Node. It brings me tremendous philosophical zeal.
You're right about server-side JavaScript-- there are so many more useful features in other languages, and things are more expressive (I like Lisp and Groovy, for instance). But the beauty of server-side js is that it's our esperanto. I'm interested in seeing a new generation of kids and senior citizens participating creatively on the web. But in order to do that, we need to standardize to a single programming languages across use cases, disciplines, and preferences. And JavaScript, whatever you think of it, is the best opportunity we've had.
- gregjor 12y agoThis is a fairly old argument. The single universal programming language that anyone could pick up and use led to BASIC on the low-end and PL/1 on the high-end. Neither is used much anymore. Neither appealed much to a wide audience of non-programmers, though BASIC came close. And neither were anything near universal even in their heyday. If server-side JS is "our esperanto" that's damning with faint praise. Esperanto is not a universal language, it doesn't fill any actual need, and it hasn't encouraged more people to read or write.
- quadrangle 12y agoYou mean it's our "lingua franca" — the thing that isn't better in any way, but is just used universally enough that everyone ends up using it. I don't understand the metaphor to Esperanto.