[schwartzworld]

I think it's worth noting that the Web ate software largely because the ergonomics for new devs are vastly superior to building native apps, and can be used cross platform without downloading binaries. What language is easier to get moving in? If writing cross platform native apps was as easy as using a single html file with a script tag, they would be more in vogue.

To accommodate the greater scope of the web the language has evolved. It's fast, supports multiple paradigms, and never makes breaking changes, so your code will run the same 20 years from now.

[throwaway09223]

Yes, absolutely.

Put another way: Systems with great benefits are able to survive their great failings.

This dynamic explains most "inexplicable" situations where something seemingly terrible in certain specific ways enjoys continued success.

[someweirdperson]

> and never makes breaking changes, so your code will run the same 20 years from now.

But only if you can get it to work in all browsers and derivatives today, including their versions of the last 20 years.

[schwartzworld]

Is this a real issue? I doubt the average new coder needs to worry about supporting 20 year old browsers today. I've never worked at a company that needed to support ie8 or whatever.