[heavenlyblue]

Let's be clear: JavaScript tries to be both a platform and a programming language.

People hate it because there's no practical reason why we're forced to use JavaScript in order to program - and most of the people who are productive are probably using some sort of variation on ECMAScript that makes it bearable anyway.

[CharlesW]

> Let's be clear: JavaScript tries to be both a platform and a programming language.

I'm not sure how you came to this conclusion. JavaScript is the common language for two major platforms (browsers, Node.js) and many smaller ones (Cocos2d, enyo JS, Espruino, GNOME Shell, Kinoma XS6, NativeScript, Weex, etc.).

[heavenlyblue]

Um what?

- browsers: used since the 90s because there's no other alternative

- node.js: created because JS is used in browsers and it's easier to write code in a single language for browsers and servers

- Cocos2d: you're clearly lying as the only place where JS is mentioned is Cocos2d-html, as there's again - no alternative

- enyo JS: again, used clearly due to the fact that modern - browsers are available for all of the modern platforms

- Weex, NativeScript: typical "native app" libraries which use a webkit pane for most of the rendering, again - javascript here is circumstantial since you can't choose anything else

- GNOME Shell, Kinoma XS6: OK. These are the only ones that make any sort of a strong point in your message; but as far as it goes - modern linux distros are moving to Python for systems programming anyway. So learning JS here is a miss.