[BiteCode_dev]

I don't think it is. If JS had any sane competition, I think it would have lost. By some weird conjunction of events, it landed a monopoly on the most amazing plateform in the world.

PHP is a good example of Worse is Better, because it won over the competition, despite its flaws.

HTML vs xHTML as well. Bash, maybe?

But JS didn't win. It was the only one there.

[yen223]

What? JS had loads of competition back then. VBScript, Flash, and Java applets, just to name a few ways to get interactivity on a browser.

[BiteCode_dev]

"sane" is the keyword here.

The alternative all depended on non technical users with slow connections to install the runtime.

Js code was guaranteed to work anywhere, and with no requirements, giving it practical monopoly.