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New JavaScript features coming in 2020 that will surely rock your world!!

Shadid Haque on December 18, 2019

Is this another overly hyped article about JavaScript. Perhaps!!! Maybe after reading this you will share my enthusiasm 😁. In 2020 JavaScript will...

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Snehanshu Phukon • Dec 18 '19

Optional Chaining is my favorite though.

SwiftWinds • Apr 2 '20

Not to mention nullish coalescing. 😍

David Wickes • Dec 18 '19 • Edited

So here's an opinion: none of these are at all interesting as 'features'. They don't really extend the language - at best they're sugar over what's there already. The benefits are minor.

The downsides are not insignificant. Extending the language syntax like this means you have to 'know' a lot more magic symbols and incantations in order to 'know' JavaScript. Every extension like this makes it a harder language to learn with, to my view, very little benefit. "Scheme for the browser" has never looked so complicated.

Nice article though.

fetishlace • Dec 18 '19

If that opinion stands on "lot more magic symbols and incantations in order to 'know' JavaScript" - what does this 'know' means?
Does mastering of JS mean knowing all the features? - I do not think so, there is documentation anyway.
Does mastering of JS mean using all the features? - same answer I guess, no one is using all what is available out there.
"magic symbols and incantations" and "The downsides are not insignificant."? - No, but nice hyperbole. There is documentation, and i cannot think about realistic scenario in which someone knows how to use String.prototype.match() and is unable to get how String.prototype.matchAll() works, or same with Object.entries() and Object.fromEntries() - I think this is just filling holes in something what i would call language 'symmetry' in this case (maybe not so needed, but better to have than to not have :-)).
Anyway are problems in understanding really coming from number of features or more from the usage itself? How long is RegExp there? I am weak in RegExp (my fault), but sometimes i am using it and it is handy, BUT i've seen few professional devs 10+ years in a job staring long minutes into some weird RegExp not knowing how exactly(!) it works...
I agree this is nothing big like ES6. And I also kind of agree than less is more, but not always.
Most of it (all?) is already ready to use in chrome or Babel, optional chaining will be usable, waiting for it coming into chrome, Object.fromEntries() is usable, same with BigInt and Promise.allSettled - i am not even using any framework so cannot comment module import and i am not professional dev anyway, I just do not think things are black or white.

𒎏Wii 🏳️‍⚧️ • Jun 26 '20

I'd say to 'know' javascript implies, at the very least, being handed any snippet of JS code (that's not written specifically to be unreadable) and being able to figure out what it does on a language-level without having to consult the documentation.

This is specially relevant in cases like the ?. operator, which is hard to google when encountered in the wild.

discobanco • Dec 18 '19 • Edited

Agree. Let's just stick to C++, or better even, assembly language. Much less to learn!
I do agree this list didn't bring much to the table, though... (except the dynamic runtime imports perhaps?) They're might be more interesting things coming up. Were private fields mentioned here?