[778hbff]

> JS is the first language to really solve the distribution problem

Excuse me, what? I just spilled my coffee all over the desk.

Care to explain what you mean with the problem and how js "solved" it? In my view dependencies and distribution are terrible in javascript, but maybe we mean different things.

[javajosh]

JavaScript is the only language in which you can write a program and distribute to every device in the world, today, cheaply and reliably. (technically this is an exaggeration - not everything has a browser. but you get the point.)

[yakshaving_jgt]

You don't need to write it though. The average Internet building person would be better off writing in a language which isn't terrible, and only using JS as the bytecode of the web.

[jakelazaroff]

Believe it or not, some of us have written other "not terrible" languages and actually prefer JavaScript.

[yakshaving_jgt]

I don’t believe it. I refuse to believe that someone can become proficient in a technology which forbids runtime errors and doesn’t bitrot, and then think “you know what, I wish my programs would error more at runtime and also refuse to compile because dependencies changed.”

To want more failure is to be insane. I think rather a lot of programmers think they’ve tried alternatives, but in reality have experimented with syntax swaps of what is essentially the same language.

[jakelazaroff]

What language are you referring to? It sounds like you have something very specific in mind, because the usual “not terrible” suspects (Python, Ruby, Rust, Go, etc) don’t have the properties you’re talking about.

[yakshaving_jgt]

Ruby and Python are essentially syntax swaps of the same language. Also not sure how practical it is to write in any of Ruby, Python, Go, or Rust and generate JavaScript.

Elm would be an example of a language which is fundamentally better than JavaScript (and is a practical substitute for what most people are writing JavaScript for), but it isn't the only one.

[xg15]

How about Java, C/C++, the .NET languages or Rust?

[FractalHQ]

I love Typescript

[waspight]

It is not always aspects of stability that are most important. I prefer js because it might be the fastest language to get an MVP out the door, among other things.

[yakshaving_jgt]

I think the economic argument you're making is the most sensible one, and it's going to be highly context dependent. Personally, I subscribe to the idiom that nothing is more permanent than a temporary solution.

[javajosh]

Maybe. I think of it as an experiment. You may be right. It may also be that the potential of raw javascript hasn't been fully explored. That's my hypothesis. I don't think jquery was the best it could do. Time will tell who is right!

[yakshaving_jgt]

JavaScript won’t go through any revolutionary fundamental change because such a change would break the entire internet.