I'd love if JS would receive a rewrite. But when you get down to it, JS isn't so horrible as you put it. In fact it is a very elegant language burdened by its initial design constrictions (i.e. forced to look like Java, tight time budget). So I don't understand all the hate.
Hey can you give what is the rationale behind the JS hate? I am building a website that relies heavily on JS. What should I be aware to steer away from the JS hate?
IMHO the quirkiness of JS is not the main reason for JS hate, neither is the experiments being done with it. People hate JS because they have to use JS. Clojure, C#, Go or any other language would have the same destiny if they were the only language which worked on browsers.
Coding JS is 95% of my day job and I'm 100% sure that it is the worst language I have ever used. All languages have flaws but JS's are serious, inexcusable and onerous.
It’s funny but a lot of JS haters are Java devs. Which also don’t know a thing about JS, or at least think JS looks like in the 90s, with callback hells and whatnot.
I don't really think JS is bad. I actually prefer it to most languages.
It's fast, concise, flexible, and has lots of modern features. It has some weak spots, but all languages do. When people are so ideological about the language it tells me they either haven't used it much or they are unrealistic about flaws in other languages.
Personally, I think that the original JS syntax is absolutely horrendous and is in no small part responsible for the bad reputation JS is still shaking off. Modern JS in comparison is an absolute dream.
It's not that JavaScript is a bad language, it's just easy to write bad code in JavaScript. I don't get it why most people coming from languages you mentioned like to bash JS so much, I used most of these languages in the past or use them currently (mainly Java and Python) and I like JavaScript the most. The problem is most people just don't want to learn JS, they write shitty code because it's easier and than complain how bad the language is. Sure, there are many issues with the language itself, usually because of how flexible it is, but for almost every issue there is a 'good way' of dealing with it.
Here's an interesting observation from recent HN reactions to JS:
+ The hardcore server folks are hating JS these days, because it requires more than dropping a single script tag.
+ The full-stack people / JS beginners are hating JS with a passion, because they think it's unneeded complexity for
their deadline.
+ Advanced JS veterans totally like how the JS ecosystem is rapidly maturing & solving its problems in interesting ways.
And there's people like you (the latter), constantly explaining the former groups that JS isn't so bad.
I'll see if I can write a blog (or a book if it has to be) on each part of JS ecosystem that has changed with detailed explanations on why it is better.
I find all his digs at javascript funny since, at least the way I use it, javascript is basically an ugly-looking scheme. Javascript is responsible for my 'lisp enlightenment' with the language using first-class functions and closures, and the wide variety of precompilers. It strikes me as fashionable to hate on javascript.
Java on the other hand, now that's a horrible language ;) ;)
Javascript is fine. It has first-class functions, a minimal but functional metaobject protocol, lambdas, etc. It is also fast and has familiar syntax to work with. There are many worse programming languages out there. I admire the “everything that is popular is wrong” maxim (it is quite popular), but blaming JS as some sort of ultimate evil is somewhat unsubstantiated.
Do you hate JS the language or do you hate the ecosystem? JS gets a bad rap from folks that have never had a chance to master the language and do pure JS development, which is actually quite enjoyable.
Its far better than it was 10 years ago - JS hate is wielded here by people who haven't used it in years. Unlike C++ the language has changed (definitely for the better). I don't even particularly care much for it but the people who will sit here and lambast it while staunchly writing C++ as if that language isn't in an even worse mess is pretty silly.
I know your take is balanced but others in HN loveeee to hate JS just because they think its what they are supposed to do.
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