[jononomo]

I read the entire article based on the misconception that the title was "At some point, JavaScript not good", which I thought was an amusing title, and also a pithy way to express what I've felt for a long time. So I read and read, expecting to get to the part where the author explains why JavaScript is not good at some point. But it never came.

I spent four years building an in-browser digital ad auction manager in JavaScript that truly bent my mind and that also delivered millions of dollars in ad revenue. You would think I would come away from that experience thinking "I know JavaScript", but I instead I came away thinking "That was hell, I never want to work in JavaScript again".

I worked on that project over the time period when ES6 was introduced and also later transitioned everything to TypeScript. I agree that things got better, but I still think that JavaScript is pathetic.

[jpgvm]

The problem is that once you spend any reasonable amount of time with something that doesn't suck it becomes hard to look at JS/TS the same way. The warts feel so much worse when you know it doesn't need to be that way.

[jononomo]

Oh yes -- 100%.

Why would anyone use JavaScript when there are web stacks that JavaScript-free? You can use Flutter on the front end (people rave about how nice it is to program in Dart and Flutter) and there are also options like Elixir/Phoenix/LiveView and HTMX, which allow you to build modern web apps without messing with JavaScript.

I can't stand the fact that every other tech startup is using Node on the backend.

Everything can be so much simpler and better and nicer, but it is not.

[techpression]

Joining as a lead engineer in a startup, everything we do on the web will be Elixir. After three stints with Next.js “backends” at previous places I have vowed to myself to never use it or take a job where they use it ever again.