[jerf]

"I don't remember at any point having a specific language stop me from achieving my goal because it has some traps or design flaws."

I have to admit, a language has never stopped me personally. But it most assuredly has hurt me when trying to program with other people, who do not have a direct psychic hotline into my brain that tells them what preconditions must hold before my code will work properly, and what things they can and can not do with a certain library, and most importantly, why they can and can not do those things. Languages that allow me to encode more of those things into the program itself, instead of the ambient documentation-that-nobody-ever-reads-even-when-I've-put-tons-of-work-into-it, work better.

And as my memory isn't all that great, it turns out that if I'm away from my own code for long enough, I become one of those people who don't have a direct hotline to my-brain-in-the-past.

[briantakita]

> But it most assuredly has hurt me when trying to program with other people, who do not have a direct psychic hotline into my brain that tells them what preconditions must hold before my code will work properly, and what things they can and can not do with a certain library, and most importantly, why they can and can not do those things

Programming is hard. It's an ongoing process of mastery. This is true with any programming language. There is no silver bullet.

> Languages that allow me to encode more of those things into the program itself

There are plenty of tools that almost every language provides for you. It's an architectural concern to ensure that there is as little mapping between the domain and the code.

I personally find Javascript to be flexible, which allows me to architect my software in a way that is communicative of the domain, without many restrictions.

> I become one of those people who don't have a direct hotline to my-brain-in-the-past

A story is a great way to communicate information. Automated functional (black box) testing is also good. Also, try to reduce the mapping between the domain and the software. Ideally, the software (naming) should have a 1-1 map to the domain.

Also, keep the structures flat, as this idiom tends to reduce complexity.

Keep consistent & iterate on architectural idioms between projects.

These are some ways to improve communicability of the codebase & to have insight into the business domain logic.

[jerf]

"business domain logic"

Ah, you see, there's the problem... this wasn't business logic. To put it in Haskell terms, I had code that was not in IO, but I couldn't actually encode that restriction in the language.

Most of your post amounts to "program better", which is vacuous advice. We've spent decades telling each other to "program better". We've proved to my satisfaction that's not enough. Have you used languages not from the same tradition as Javascript? It is possible, even likely, that you are not aware of the options that are available out there, even today.

[briantakita]

> Ah, you see, there's the problem... this wasn't business logic.

What is "this"?

> Most of your post amounts to "program better", which is vacuous advice

No it's not. It's certainly better than dwelling on some edge case shortcomings and limiting your growth by blaming the tools.

No tool is perfect. Learn to use it better. Master it. Improve it. If you want to use a different tool, then use a different tool. There's no need to spread negativity.

There has been plenty of progress in Javascript idioms & programming idioms in the past few decades. You can accomplish many things with Javascript and the environment will only continue to improve. Programmers will continue to get better from the ecosystem & practices that have been learned over time.

Even your mighty Haskell is not perfect. Time to accept non-perfection & evolve :-)

> Have you used languages not from the same tradition as Javascript?

Yes, I have. I also draw inspiration from other languages & environments.

> It is possible, even likely, that you are not aware of the options that are available out there, even today.

Yes, I'm aware. When they prove themselves, I'll consider using them. In the meantime (and always), I'm happily mastering my craft free of unnecessary angst.