[austin-cheney]

This is something I have always found interesting. Most people cannot write JavaScript but think they can because the syntax looks familiar and then complain when the result is shit.

There is some hidden assumption this language should reflect some other language a given programmer is formerly trained in and then disappointed when JavaScript is not their favorite pet language. Further interesting is that there is no interest or investment in formal training in JavaScript, just assumptions and failed dreams.

In that spirit when people say getting good I usually take that to mean looking more like Java, C#, or whatever.

[jonbeebe]

You bring up a good point, but as you know, there's a certain amount of intuitive knowledge that gets carried over when learning another programming language (which is why it's much easier to learn additional languages than it was the first one you spent a considerable amount of time with). The problem is, JavaScript does look a whole lot like the languages you mention, it's just that some things behave vastly differently (ie. function scoped variables, behavior of double equals, etc.), which is what causes the confusion and sometimes you don't learn about these things until they bite you at some point.

[__oh_es]

Adding to this, the last few occasions I have been told that js sucks has either been about some browser security mechanisms (think cors and iframe sandboxing) and red-green async functions.