Until recently, and I know the "front-end devs" are going to have my head for this, but until recently, there was hardly any serious JavaScript coding going on even on the client-side. That means it wasn't something that a new developer would really stumble across and just start using to build full-fledged programs.

JavaScript's main use was extending web widgets to do things slightly more conveniently. All the heavy lifting would be behind the scenes and JavaScript would watch you type so it could autotab for you. So I don't think the explanation that there was a vast knowledgebase eager to break into the backend is plausible.

JavaScript was so disliked from horrifyingly frustrating exposure throughout the IE6 days that no one would go near the thing unless they were wrapped in the jQuery condom. John Resig was a hero of legendary bravery for biting the bullet and making JavaScript semi-usable.

Someone had to write a book called "JavaScript: The Good Parts" that openly acknowledged JavaScript's inherent inferiority but tried to cheer us up by saying "Hey, I know we're stuck with this because browser vendors will never be able to agree on something else, but there are some hidden cool things about it! Don't cry!"

Somehow in the last 5 years or so, JavaScript has gone from something that required a prophylactic device before anyone would approach it to something that real companies are writing production _DESKTOP_ applications in. What the heck happened?

(I think The Good Parts is probably the real turning point here, where it became OK to treat JavaScript as a non-joke, and that V8 accelerated it. But people took Crockford's feel-good apologia and ran way past the finish line with it.)

PHP would like a word.