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by jackallis 2310 days ago
This obviously lends the question, given it's criticism back in the day, which PL is the next javascript?
4 comments

Find a runtime environment that will ship on every major device this year. Any language that can (relatively) cleanly target that runtime could be the next JavaScript in 10 years.

But your question is equivalent to “what Nation could be the next United States”.

Possible serious answers to your question... which language might be on every device in 10 years... some successor to Solidity might Trojan horse it’s way in. If Facebook built a, like, a “Facebook Platform” or something like that, that could be on every device. Other than that, it’s hard to imagine.

JavaScript came from an era of global platforms. That’s over, now we’re in the era of fractured platforms. I don’t think we’ll see another global platform in a long time. It would need a major new selling point (like Solidity has) that can’t be replicated on existing platforms.

Maybe it depends on what's the next platform. C/C++ was sort of a base programming language for desktop apps, javascript for the browser, and Objective C & Java for mobile. Server apps have been a mix of PHP/python/java/ruby/node.js.

I guess my 2 wild guesses for the long-term future might be either or both 1) a visual/block programming tool (which perhaps might perhaps be more usable in virtual reality type environments) or 2) natural language programming (programming in English and/or other natural languages), which might be more usable in both virtual reality and chat environments.

So, Smalltalk/Pharo.
Do you mean "heavily criticized, with significant flaws, but might grow into something with massive use"?

Go, maybe? Or is it not flawed enough and not criticized enough? Or is it already used too heavily?

Not flawed enough, not criticized enough, and not growing into massive use. It's got its niche but there seems to be some competition.
Any language that compiles to WASM.