[geysersam]

> Which is it? Do you want to be a scripting language or a programming language that compiles to something? It’s so gross to me.

This is ridiculous. Just aesthetics. JS compiles to machine code when you run it "just in time". It's even relatively efficient considering it doesn't need static typing.

The "build step" is just for reducing the size of the payload. It is possible a binary representation would make it even smaller but not by much. Not worth the added complexity

[tracker1]

A bit older, but both worth a read, and most of this is still relevant today...

https://www.amazon.com/High-Performance-Web-Sites-Essential/...

https://www.amazon.com/Even-Faster-Web-Sites-Performance/dp/...