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Discussion on: Why is everything Javascript?

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peerreynders

Am I missing some universal truth that will make me love the language?

The universal truth is that there is no need to love JavaScript (or TypeScript).

You will never master JavaScript if you cannot learn to respect its idiosyncrasies.

To get into the right frame of mind perhaps watch this:

“Dear Developer, the Web Isn't About You”

… and paraphrasing …

“Dear Developer, JavaScript Isn't About You”—but what you can accomplish with it (in a relatively short amount of time).

The way to get on with JavaScript is to know and respect its faults, recognize its strengths and above all, to not try to make it into something it isn't by shoehorning it into a frame of some programming language you happen to be familiar with or one you would rather be working with—JavaScript is what it is.

Once you get to that level of competency, JavaScript is a non-issue and you can move on to enjoying building whatever you need to build (and whatever value that provides). JavaScript, just like programming, is a means to an end—not an end in itself.

That said, experience in other (Scheme or Lisp flavoured) programming languages will benefit JavaScript competence.


More recently, “why” it's happening:

“… because of the hydration problem … for these declarative Frameworks to work on both sides efficiently, you need to have JavaScript on both sides; I'm not saying your whole back end has to be JavaScript …”

Evolving Isomorphic Data-Fetching - YouTube

New constraints have been leading to a complete rethinking of how we handle isomorphic data-fetching in JavaScript frameworks. Truthfully I don't have the fu...

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“… if you're not using JavaScript on the server, you're doing it wrong … but if you care about end-user experience, you can make more significant improvements by running JavaScript on the server [compared to any other server language «you» prefer] …”

Evolving Isomorphic Data-Fetching - YouTube

New constraints have been leading to a complete rethinking of how we handle isomorphic data-fetching in JavaScript frameworks. Truthfully I don't have the fu...

favicon youtube.com