Do you like JavaScript and for how long have you been working with it?

#discuss

Top comments (12)

I've worked with Javascript for 21 years. I've had a love-hate relationship with it. I've also coded in other ECMAScript languages such as JScript and ActionScript. I started to learn it in-depth in 2008 because things were getting standardized. Later, I was contributing to Script# - A C# to Javascript compiler (now defunct) which was used to implement Office 365. I started to love JS once NodeJS was released and even more with ES6!

Arnaud Morisset • Feb 24 '18

I've worked with for 2 years now and I also have a love-hate relationship with JavaScript.

Hate: 'cause of all of its akward things and shitty type system (and I regret some choices made by the community that built tools for its ecosystem).

Love: This is one of few languages that let me program how I want and doesn't make choices for me (I can choose between promises and callbacks, between OOP and FP, etc...).

So, I still enjoy teaching it but when I need to build a robust frontend app, I prefer Elm (and I keep an eye on PureScript).

Dian Fay • Feb 25 '18

Four or five years here, after years more with Java, C#, and others; I have complicated feelings about it. I miss strong typing, but not enough to throw TypeScript or Flow on top of it, and then again the borderline-crazy way it works is eminently exploitable on the off-chance you need to make the same object think it's three different things at the same time (which I have). I like the functional aspects with map and reduce and so forth in the standard library. I wish there were fewer gotchas like nested brackets not counting, string addition, and return-on-its-own-line. Overall I think it's a reasonably expressive language and it's been making some big improvements lately but it's never going to escape the history holding it back.

p-mcgowan • Feb 26 '18 • Edited

3 years - definite love-hate. It's quirky and frustrating, but useful and powerful. Between ES6, TypeScript, Node, and others it's become a very useful tool.

I love that it's the native language of the browser since I use that for productivity. Bookmarklets and one-off servers for tools and utilities, scripting and automating everything I do - it's the same reason I fell in love with Bash and the terminal.

Meghan (she/her) • Feb 24 '18

I've been using JavaScript for roughly 5 years and it's kinda weird because I feel like JS has gotten really good at the same time that I've been learning it. ES 2015+ is easily the best JS has ever been and the only thing I would add at this point is strict typing and a "mode" that allowed your code to be natively compiled if it followed the convention. To get back to your question, yes, I love JavaScript.

Douglas McKechie • Feb 25 '18

Yes I like JavaScript a lot, not so much all these fancy frameworks there are these days for it (though jQuery is great).

Been coding in JS for over 15 years and recently having fun with Canvas, the Audio API, and some 3D libraries such as Babylon JS.

Davey Faherty • Feb 26 '18

I think the only really bad thing about frameworks is that people think they need to use them all the time. Not every website needs to be a web app.

The kind of work you mention is a great example of when you don't need a framework, and it's better to stick to the essentials.

sam • Feb 26 '18

I've been dealing with js off and on for ~5 years. I used to really dislike it, but then ES6 came along and solved a lot of the problems I had with it (wacky scoping, this). I'm coming around to the opinion that ES6 is Good Enough for most things. The problem now (imo) is pushing back against the overproliferation of frameworks that were developed in the Bad Old Days.

Kasey Speakman • Feb 24 '18 • Edited

Even if Javascript didn't have all its weird edges, I would not use it more than required. I prefer the benefits of typed functional programming. But at the same time I'm thankful that anything at all exists in this space that is cross-browser supported. (And especially that I can compile typed functional languages to it.)

I have been working with Javascript for 18 or so years now. Long before it was viable to create a full browser-based application.

Davey Faherty • Feb 26 '18

Yeah it's ok. 10 years, main language used.

This is the best time to be working with JavaScript, personally speaking. CommonJS and similar attitudes have brought a great commonality to the major frameworks, including new versions of older ones. The things you learn today are more portable than ever.
Some of the things people complain about here are real risks, but haven't bothered me in years. It's like working on a farm and getting kicked by a cow. It's a risk, it's a bad thing about cows, but with a bit of experience you learn to avoid it. Or you can take a shortcut and use a linter to tell you what to do.
TypeScript is popular, personally I could live without strict types, but they're fine. But what's really good about it is that it makes it easy to use all the new stuff in JavaScript, and has lots of support.