Ask HN: Why learn non-JS languages/framework?

This is great advice. If you spend your time only reading about the latest startups, you'll think everyone is using Javascript and Node for everything.

The vast majority of software is not written in either of these two. And it's not a knock on them, there just a tremendous amount of software out there and most of it pre-dates the Javascript/Node environment.

catalyst over mojolicious? Looking into both, and mojolicious seems to be winning at this point.

It really depends where you are in your career. If you are just starting out and would like to work in general web development, committing yourself to JS only would be stupid beyond belief. That would assume that JS based frameworks are going to be ubiquitous in the near future. They definitely won't be and there are many reasons to doubt that they will be ubiquitous in the long term as well. The same can be said for any language or framework, language convergence does not seem to be happening. More likely the landscape will remain unstable in the medium to long term. Therefore, as a generalist web developer you will be better served by polyglotism. Learn MVC and other application design patterns. Learn server side programming and client side programming. Learn SQL and others ways of interfacing with persistence layers. In short, don't stop learning and don't assume that there is one holy grail or one right way to do it. There are many jobs and many tools. Being a good programmer is about finding a way to match the tools with the job.

You don't sound even minimally stupid. :)

I wouldn't necessarily advocate any of those specific frameworks, but I do think there is life outside of JavaScript. I actually don't think JavaScript (particularly on the server) is a very good language at all. Blasphemy, I know.

As someone who has spent time with JS frameworks like Ember, Meteor, and the rest, as well as libraries and component systems like Rendr, React, and Backbone, it's certainly not the case that JavaScript is free of frustration. In fact, I've found the opposite to be true: despite the enthusiasm, some of these solved a bunch of problems only to create others.

The truth is, if you focus on being a great engineer then picking up another language and framework isn't very difficult. It will make you a better programmer to see how other systems solve problems.

Not to speak out of both sides of my mouth, but I do advocate being a master at one or two languages and learning how to write idiomatic code. I just think there's room for more than literally one.

If someone tells you that Node is here to save us all from certain disaster and JavaScript is the One True Answer, I would simply nod your head, smile, say thank you, and then run as fast as you can.

This feels like what happens when a web developer fails to realize that the web is not the be-all-and-end-all of software development.

Do you want to create fantastic 3D graphics and visual effects? Best learn C++ and OpenGL.

Do you want to develop a highly resilient parallel system that can be patched without downtime? Learn Erlang.

Do you want to program an embedded system, or anything where you need to be close to the hardware? Learn C.

Do you want to program mobile apps? Java, Objective-C or Swift.

Do you want to "program" hardware on an FPGA? Verilog.

Do you want to quickly make 3D games or other interactive experiences? Try C# and Unity.

Do you want to advance your own knowledge of programming and computation, even if you don't have a particular platform restriction? Learn any language in a different language family than you're used to, something like Clojure or Haskell or Prolog.

And as you get familiar with other languages, you'll find it's easier each time to pick up the next one.

Your question might better be phrased as, "As a web developer, what are the advantages to learning non-JavaScript-based web frameworks and languages?"

With my limited experience in the web world, the only good, practical answer to this modified question that I can come up with is "diversification". If all your eggs are in one basket when it comes to programming skill, you're very vulnerable to a language or toolset falling out of vogue. I know some Flash developers, for example, who have been absolutely devastated by the happenings of the past several years, because their toolset was far too rooted in Flash. JavaScript is pretty ubiquitous these days, so I doubt something quite that dramatic would happen to it, but it's possible that it could—for example, I can imagine best practices shifting over the next ten or twenty years so that nobody writes Javascript directly anymore, but only languages that compile to it. I'm not saying that will happen, but it's an example of something that could.