I've used a lot of different languages including Java, C#, C++, AVR Assembly, Python and others but JavaScript is my favourite and I would not want to go back.
I think its a shame that some people just didn't seriously try JavaScript. It's a very powerful, expressive language.
Also, testing with JS is amazing - Especially unit testing on Node.js. It lets you do stuff like redefine entire objects, properties or methods at runtime (for stubbing).
Also, JS is great for writing asynchronous logic.
I can't believe people actually like it. It might be understandable if you're comparing it to enterprisey Java, but I'm baffled that anyone could prefer ES5 to Python or Ruby. (I will acknowledge that ES6 puts it somewhere in the area of Python 2.5).
It's an incredibly powerful, expressive language.
Not if you want super advanced features like a hashtable with non-string keys, or checking if two objects are equal.
It lets you do stuff like redefine entire objects, properties or methods at runtime (for stubbing).
As does any other dynamic language.
Also, JS is great for writing asynchronous logic.
As is any other language with first-class functions. And with others you don't have to do silly contortions to work around JavaScript's broken "this".
I think its a shame that some people just didn't seriously try JavaScript.
Tried it, have written it professionally for many years, and as a result am very much looking forward to WebAssembly.
Also, there is something to the whole "modules are records/hashes" idea which is quite elegant, IMO. I'm not sure why we still put up with the idea that the module system needs to be a whole different language with different rules. But I'm not sure if there is a type system capable of modelling this very well.
Can you believe you can satisfy every programmer out there with a single language? of course not. Why did you have to use all the languages you listed? Because some made sense in a specific context, other didn't.
> Also, testing with JS is amazing - Especially unit testing on Node.js. It lets you do stuff like redefine entire objects, properties or methods at runtime (for stubbing). Also, JS is great for writing asynchronous logic.
Testing with Python is also amazing. It doesn't matter how amazing it is if I hate writing Python code.
No, the reality is that, in 5/10 years, javascript skills wont matter, only a good knowledge of the DOM and WebAPIs. In fact I'm pretty sure you'll see more opening for C++ developers on the front-end than Javascript ones.
I would be happy to take a bet that this will not be the case.
The fact is that JS is much easier to learn than C++, has a broader ecosystem in the browser, is faster to write than C++ due to memory safety among other considerations, and is fast enough for app logic.
Think about it. C++ code has been supported for years on mobile. Yet Java/Dalvik is king on Android, and Objective-C is king on iOS. JS is faster than both (in the case of Objective-C, JS property access is faster than Obj-C virtual method dispatch due to ICs). So I see no reason why this will not be true on the Web as well. Web Assembly is very needed and important, but JS won't be going away.
If you're dissatisfied with JavaScript call performance, you have no choice.
C++ is a giant beast, but most of it was relatively easy to learn after I internalized the general principles that guide the language's design. These principles were the first coherent account I ever found of how programs manipulating ephemeral resources should be written. [I am aware that Rust improves on C++, but it builds on, rather than replace, the general principles established by C++.]
On the other hand, in JavaScript I have never found anything even remotely close to methodological guidance for writing programs. JavaScript seems to make sense of anything as long as it is syntactically valid - a very low bar. As a result, I felt like I had to navigate a really huge space, hoping to eventually find a correct program somewhere.
JavaScript's ability to run in the browser is, as far as I can tell, its only advantage over C++.
> It lets you do stuff like redefine entire objects, properties or methods at runtime
Sounds horrifying to me, because, as in Ruby[1], library authors will decide that's a good idea. Typeclasses/protocols solve this problem perfectly, while maintaining type safety.
[1]: for some reason, this seems to be less of an issue in Python and Obj-C, even though it's totally doable?
== vs ===
!==
hasOwnProperty
> Also, testing with JS is amazing - Especially unit testing on Node.js. It lets you do stuff like redefine entire objects, properties or methods at runtime (for stubbing).
Doable in Common Lisp for 21 years…
> Also, JS is great for writing asynchronous logic.
ITYM JavaScript has first-class functions. So does Lisp, so does Python, so does Go…
And, no, JavaScript is nowhere near any "powerfull, expressive language". It is embarrasingly low level for a supposedly scripting language and it does not provide any powerful productivity features whatsoever.
JS is also a nightmare for the implementers, it does not have a sane specification, therefore most of the tooling is not comprehensive.
But I'll never understand who thought this asynchronous API was a good idea.
I just wanted to draw pictures in a canvas _in order_, because they should overlap. A common task you could mean. I ended up building a monadic builder for callback chains, that creates a javascript string that is evaled. I felt like this language and the api was incredibly cumbersome, minimalistic and limited. It lacks a blocking api, monad support, dsl support, macros and lazy evalution.
But mayme there is a simple solution to that, that I'm not aware of.
In what sense is Scheme not powerful? It has TCO, syntax-rules, call/cc, etc.
Of course, all of those are things scheme has that JavaScript doesn't.
