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by wppick
3572 days ago
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The browser is an extremely well designed platform/environment. Web applications run on pretty much ever modern device: Windows, Mac, Linux, game consoles, smartphones. It's an awesome distributed system that allows for deploying applications from server to client in an efficient way. The barrier to entry has historically been very low, getting a hello world app running is incredibly easy. The web has always been extensible -- you can add scripts to any existing web page if it doesn't quite meet your needs, or to make yourself more productive. The web has typically been an open platform. You used to be able to view source and see how someone built something (even by unminifying the js). Sharing code is very common, just look at how many jQuery plugins exist. The web community has a culture of evolving and pushing forward even with issues like fragmentation (Internet Explorer). I'd argue that the type of developers who are willing to pick up JavaScript given it's issues of not being typed, having to figure out all the workaround for making up for weird type conversions, the flexibility of it's language and having to make all of your data structures out of JSON objects, functions, and utilizing the scope chain are the reason why the web has been so fruitful and productive. The web community formed around JavaScript, and I don't think it was successful in spite of JavaScripts "shortcomings". I think it's shortcomings ended up being (and causing) very good design. |
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Uh, it's an expansive platform, but it is not even remotely 'well designed'.
The 'barrier to entry' is actually getting worse for basic apps. How many tools must one use? Crazy framworks that keep changing?
'The browser' is the only platform one can develop for these days wherein you have no idea how your app will function 'in the field'. You use a lot of crazy product decisions and compatibility tables to 'estimate' for what % of your audience the app will work.
Behold: the biggest company in the world leaves their browser documentation empty :
https://developer.apple.com/reference/webkitjs/2030049-webki...
All of the limitations of JS described in the article are true. That said, I don't think JS is going anywhere.