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0 pointshnlmorg7mo ago0 comments

That’s also precisely the reason why we have the clusterfuck that is the JavaScript ecosystem.

People complain that we can’t have nice things. But even when we do, enough developers will be lazy enough not to learn them anyway.

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robmccoll7mo ago

I'd argue it's because the web is the dominant platform for many applications and no other languages can offer a first class experience. if WASM had direct access to the DOM and web APIs and maybe a little more runtime support to lessen the bloat, I'd use something else.

hnlmorgOP7mo ago

JavaScript has been a backend language long before the web was the dominant platform.

And one of the, admittedly many, reasons why web technologies like Electron and React Native exist is because it’s easier to find JavaScript developers vs Kotin, Qt or whatever.

So youre not wrong but you’re also downplaying the network effect that led to the web becoming dominant. And a part of that was because developers didn’t want to learn something new.

MonkeyClub7mo ago

> JavaScript has been a backend language long before the web was the dominant platform.

I don't think this holds.

JavaScript was created as a frontend language specifically for web browsers.

It wasn't until 2009 with the introduction of Node.js that JavaScript became a viable option for backend development.

The web was already the dominant platform by then.

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