[hollerith]

I will assume you're referring to Node. The browser explains why many coders know Javascript well; the fact that many coders know Javascript well explains the popularity of Node --without our having to resort to the hypothesis that Javascript is a good language.

[YeGoblynQueenne]

I'm referring to the adoption of javascript as the scripting language for browsers. Why else do "many coders know javascript well"?

[kazinator]

The story of how we got Javascript in browsers has absolutely nothing to do with "adoption".

[YeGoblynQueenne]

But there wasn't anything stopping early browsers from using a different scripting language. They stuck with javascript. Was that because it was a good language?

And what about Java, for example? And why don't people "flock" to LISP, say, or Haskell? Are those "bad" languages, now? And what about software, like windows- is windows widely used because it's a great operating system?

Adoption is a rotten bad measure of quality. Not just in programming languages- in everything.

[kazinator]

> But there wasn't anything stopping early browsers from using a different scripting language.

You mean "nothing stopping the other browser, Microsoft Internet Explorer, from adopting Netscape's Javascript too".

[YeGoblynQueenne]

Well yes. Don't the other browser vendors count as adopters?

[em-bee]

agreed. after i learned common lisp and smalltalk, i realized that since there has hardly been any innovation in programming since the first languages half a century ago.