ES6+ eased a lot of pain around writing Javascript. It's actually a very nice language from a user standpoint.
Ask HN: Should I Be Ashamed to Love JavaScript?
31–40 of 52 posts
Re: Ask HN: Should I Be Ashamed to Love JavaScript?
#32The functional programming community loves it, especially with the introduction of ES6.
ES6 is the worst thing that ever happened to JavaScript. JavaScript's one best attribute was that it would run on any device. No longer true. It's second best attribute was a simple threading model. Promises and async wrecked that. The third best attribute was it was easy to learn. But in ES6 there are twice as many control structures to learn, with no added power. =>, class, const, etc. They just add more things to…
Love it or hate it ES6 is here to stay. I for one love it.
Re: Ask HN: Should I Be Ashamed to Love JavaScript?
#33Of course not, and it's sure as hell not the laughingstock of hundreds of thousands of developers who make a living knowing it.
Javascript is a big, sprawling, and (from day 1) very useful language. Like English, it has many many flaws and has many antecedents. Like English, it's evolved to be highly functional. The last two versions are first rate languages. The runtime environments (browsers, compilers, etc.) are among the most sophisticated, comprehensive pieces of software passionately maintained by some of the smartest people in the world working in friendly competition, and we don't have to pay a red cent for their work product.
I started programming in 1983, so about 7 years after the microcomputer took off. The very first version of Javascript was a shaggy dog but it was far more capable than interpeters selling for hundreds of dollars at that time.
The pedants who bitch about Javascript should get over themselves. I wish my life had so few problems that I could spend my precious time on this planet denigrating something given to me and every browser user for free.
Re: Ask HN: Should I Be Ashamed to Love JavaScript?
#34No, you shouldn't. And don't listen to people trying to shame you because of it.
>> It's inefficient
Well, its at least as efficient as python or ruby (I think its even slightly better). If you work on the backend side, and performance is the main goal, there are other technologies better suited: Go, C#, haskell
A problem might be the concurrency model, but that is an entirely different topic.
>> messy
Depends on your ability to organize code. Its not that much different than other technologies, really.
>> not typechecked
True, but there are other dynamically typed languages... People implement thing in them too. And there is always typescript, if you are interested in working typesafe.
>> full of beginners...
Everyone was a 'beginner' at some time in their life...
>> Maybe I feel like it's too easy compared to other languages and is downplayed as a newb language...
There are simple aspects of the language, but take a look at e.g.: Promises[0] or the Prototype inheritance chain[1] and tell me again that it is simple... ;-)
[0]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Refe...
[1]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Inhe...
Re: Ask HN: Should I Be Ashamed to Love JavaScript?
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
ES6 is the worst thing that ever happened to JavaScript. JavaScript's one best attribute was that it would run on any device. No longer true. It's second best attribute was a simple threading model. Promises and async wrecked that. The third best attribute was it was easy to learn. But in ES6 there are twice as many control structures to learn, with no added power. =>, class, const, etc. They just add more things to…
Love it or hate it ES6 is here to stay. I for one love it.
[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: Should I Be Ashamed to Love JavaScript?
#36Programming languages will not love you back. Maybe it's nothing to be ashamed about, although it seems a bit silly for me. I may take the word "love" too serious, but that's also how I feel you are taking your relationship with a glorified screwdriver.
In case of JavaScript I have one reservation, that by enabling adtech it's helping to screw other people on their own computers. Of course it could be some other language, it's not like JavaScript is inherently for this purpose alone.
Re: Ask HN: Should I Be Ashamed to Love JavaScript?
#37I think Javascript's ubiquity -- it has an implementation in every browser -- is the cause of much of its hatred. No one hates on SNOBOL because it's been superseded and no-one uses it; but if you're wanting to interface with the web, there's no other first-class langugage, everything else transpiles to JavaScript.
I think an opinionated JavaScript interpreter which considered the worst elements of JavaScript to literally be bugs (e.g. single equals) would help immensely...
Re: Ask HN: Should I Be Ashamed to Love JavaScript?
#38Javascript, my friend, is like english: Easy to learn, Hard to master. Don't be ashamed only if you are good at it.
> Don't be ashamed only if you are good at it.
Not sure if intentional pun
Re: Ask HN: Should I Be Ashamed to Love JavaScript?
#39JS is not without its problems, but it has attracted both a huge amount of mindshare and corporate investment over the last twenty years. Those both go a long way towards fixing many of the initial problems of the language.
While it isn't the language I'd have necessarily chosen to be as widespread as it it, the industry could have wound up making a far worse choice, and I'm grateful it didn't.
Re: Ask HN: Should I Be Ashamed to Love JavaScript?
#40Nope! All language/technologies are tools. Developers have (lots) of opinions but at the end of the day all of these things exist to solve user and business problems. JavaScript does both effectively
It is however useful to have a critical eye so that one can assess what is the right tool for a particular job.