[giann]

It’s stable relative to JS which is a nightmare in this regard.

[allover]

How so? JS is backwards compatible in the extreme, because browsers. New features does not equal unstable.

[giann]

I’m talking about the cognitive load of the language. Learning JS is a real complex task whereas learning Lua is not. Learning JS as is is hard since its moving so fast. I think nobody can deny the confusion surrounding the language. Lua is stable is the sense that 5 years from now you will still know how to use it even if you don’t keep up with the latest updates.

Also if you have ever dealt with any babel/webpack craziness recently you know what I’m referring to :)

[Can_Not]

So JavaScript _the language_ is "unstable" because you (for no discernable reason) switch to every bleeding edge JS framework that gets posted to HN?

[giann]

I’m not talking about frameworks. I’m talking about ES5/6/2016/2017/7/8 ... which all add new concepts and complexity.

[Can_Not]

You know those new concepts and complexities are optional? And backwards compatible? None of my jQueries broke when generators came out. And that's not even very fast at all. And people have been complaining for the longest time that JS didn't have those features.

[giann]

This really is not a good argument. You can still write php like in 98, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t learn modern php if you want to work ever.

[bsg75]

Maybe "relative to the JS ecosystem" instead?