[stevetrewick]

>It is, thus, risible that so many young people are entering the IT industry via the JavaScript route.

What's actually risible is ignoring the fact that programming skills are hugely transferable between languages. I'm not much of a JS fan personally but JS encompasses a pretty good slice of programming paradigms : first class functions, callbacks/CPS, async, oop, etc. I'm struggling to see how having a bunch of young programmers familiar with these concepts entering the industry could be bad.

I recall similar tutting back in the 80s about a whole generation being brain damaged by learning BASIC on micros. That generation did pretty well out of it as it turned out.

[berserker-one]

Maybe because JavaScript encourages bad habits? It's a very sloppy and undisciplined language, esp. with its loose typing, crazy coercions and wildly inconsistent semantics. This language has far more "warts" than any other programming language in wide use today. Jeff Walker calls it a "minefield": http://walkercoderanger.com/blog/2014/02/javascript-minefiel...