[strife25]

The bar to writing javascript is so much lower compared to other languages. All you need is a browser and learn how to open its devtools. Beyond that, you need a text editor, learn basic HTML and JS, and open a file in your browser.

Compare that to other languages, where you need to open a terminal or install special software, figure out how to write commands, install these things called packages, get esoteric errors, etc.

That amount of work to write JS vs other languages is drastically different for new coders.

With this lower bar comes a larger user base. A larger user base leads to more innovation – for better or worse.

It's inevitable to see people reinventing the wheel as they learn, simplified tools targeted at niche users, different needs (high-scale engineers vs designers), etc.

I know engineering communities get exhausted by the library churn of the JS community, but I think it's a symptom of real success. A user base this large is going to create noise, but also produce real gems from time to time.

------

I write about engineering management at [Build the Stage](https://www.buildthestage.com).

[tuvan]

This makes it sound like the low skilled people are the ones changing the ecosystem so much. The developers behind the projects that change the ecosystem are extremely talented and would be proficient in any other language as well. I think the main reason is JS is by far where most engineering hours in the industry is spent and this makes many smart minds think about possible improvements. People don't get in to JS because its easier than others, they do because it is the language that is required the most for a typical tech company and those job spots need to be filled.

[simple10]

Perhaps the attraction has to do with the large end user base more than its lower barrier of entry for devs.

Javascript is the one language you can learn and easily deploy anywhere... web, apps, server, etc. This attracts a lot of new devs and the ecosystem tries to fix inherent language limitations with new tools. i.e. It's not the best language to write an app in but you can make it work with a lot of extra tooling. But then the tooling will need to keep evolving to try to keep shrinking the pain points and limitations of the language itself.

Another huge factor is how fast browser and Node standards and APIs change, making older tooling redundant or obsolete. e.g. jQuery isn't really needed as a polyfill in browsers anymore.

[strife25]

Exactly! It’s a crazy diverse user base too.

The needs of designers creating a marketing site and engineers working on a real web app are different, but they all work with web tech.

[KronisLV]

> I know engineering communities get exhausted by the library churn of the JS community, but I think it's a symptom of real success. A user base this large is going to create noise, but also produce real gems from time to time.

I wonder why this wasn't quite the case with something like PHP, then. It had (and in some respects still has) an enormous userbase, the technology had good enough performance, had batteries included for the most common use cases and was also relatively easy to get started with (being not too dissimilar to the CGI approach of having a request and a response, unlike the Java servlet mess at that time).

And yet, Apart from projects like WordPress, Symfony, Laravel and maybe a few others, it feels like it didn't ever get quite as popular, at least from a project/tooling perspective. I mean, XAMPP was nice and the entire LAMP stack worked well for typical configurations but things just kind of stalled there, maybe as other options came along.

[paulryanrogers]

PHP doesn't run in browsers. Nor does anything that's not vanilla JS. That's why everything else either transpires to JS or requires hoop jumps like WASM.

Until that changes JS will be the least worst option for folks who need unbounded browser interactivity.