[l1ambda]

Thank you for taking the time to write this out. This is probably the best description I have seen of why it is enjoyable to write JavaScript. I myself have been programming professionally for 15 years, writing C, C++, Scheme, Java, Rust, PHP, Python, Ruby, shell script, etc. I actually enjoy C and Rust, have a tremendous respect for Scheme, Clojure, Haskell, Scala, ML, etc., yet I always reach for Node and JavaScript because of the great JIT, instant startup time, great debugging tools, and ease of use of npm.

To add to the part about extensibility, many times I have jumped into a "node debug" session, in my own code or in 3rd party modules installed to node_modules. Many times I have added breakpoints or tweaked 3rd party code right in node_modules, or monkey-patched methods temporarily. This kind of thing is often nearly impossible, very time consuming, or just plain difficult to do in other languages.