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Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs – JavaScript Adaptation

sicp.comp.nus.edu.sg

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Re: Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs – JavaScript Adaptation

#131

Post by Buttons840 »

protonimitate wrote: post #116
scottoreily wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Typical dramatic Hacker News user. JS is a great language and enjoyed by millions of developers.

Agreed. I'm pretty sick of the anti-JS kneejerk rhetoric that happens here. It adds zero value to any discussion. It's nothing more than a desperate attempt to gain some internet points. It's a popular language and it has flaws, but that doesn't automatically make it worthy of the amount of hate it receives here. This type of discussion has more in common with /r/iamverysmart than it does with valuable discourse that…

It's not an attempt to get internet points. It's an expression of frustration that one of the most important platforms of our time has first class support for only one language, and the only reason that language is used is because of its monopoly on the platform. Were it no for that monopoly it would rarely be used.

I'm just glad JS is as good as it is, considering it didn't have to be good. It could have been even worse and still would have succeeded due to its monopoly.

Re: Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs – JavaScript Adaptation

#132

Post by TurkishPoptart »

Buttons840 wrote: post #131
protonimitate wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. I'm pretty sick of the anti-JS kneejerk rhetoric that happens here. It adds zero value to any discussion. It's nothing more than a desperate attempt to gain some internet points. It's a popular language and it has flaws, but that doesn't automatically make it worthy of the amount of hate it receives here. This type of discussion has more in common with /r/iamverysmart than it does with valuable discourse that…

It's not an attempt to get internet points. It's an expression of frustration that one of the most important platforms of our time has first class support for only one language, and the only reason that language is used is because of its monopoly on the platform. Were it no for that monopoly it would rarely be used. I'm just glad JS is as good as it is, considering it didn't have to be good. It could have been even w…

But WebAssembly was just made a new standard by W3, which, correct me if I'm wrong, will allow browsers to natively support literally any other language the developers choose.

Re: Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs – JavaScript Adaptation

#133

Post by rounce »

colejohnson66 wrote: post #113
vmchale wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> JS is a great language literally no one believes this

JavaScript may have its quirks, but TypeScript is a great improvement. And with a few tweaks to your package.json, you can code in TS for Node.js!

What are these tweaks you speak of?

Re: Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs – JavaScript Adaptation

#134

Post by caiocaiocaio »

ng12 wrote: post #84
caiocaiocaio wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The target audience are people who don't want to learn Lisp but want to write a bunch of Lisp interpreters and compilers. Obviously.

There's a reason SICP isn't called Structure and Interpretation of Lisp Programs. Lisp is incidental.

Imagine a book where you wrote a bunch of Javascript implementations without learning Javascript.

Re: Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs – JavaScript Adaptation

#135

Post by edflsafoiewq »

ng12 wrote: post #84
caiocaiocaio wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The target audience are people who don't want to learn Lisp but want to write a bunch of Lisp interpreters and compilers. Obviously.

There's a reason SICP isn't called Structure and Interpretation of Lisp Programs. Lisp is incidental.

There is a reason SICP uses Lisp.

Re: Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs – JavaScript Adaptation

#136

Post by joelfolksy »

mananvaghasiya wrote: post #25
voldacar wrote: post #3

There's kind of a reason why SICP was written in Scheme in mind and not a blub language...

“There are only two kinds of languages: the ones people complain about and the ones nobody uses.” ― Bjarne Stroustrup

"There are only two kinds of politicians: the ones people complain about and the ones who don't get elected." - Republicans

Re: Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs – JavaScript Adaptation

#137

Post by Buttons840 »

TurkishPoptart wrote: post #132
Buttons840 wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not an attempt to get internet points. It's an expression of frustration that one of the most important platforms of our time has first class support for only one language, and the only reason that language is used is because of its monopoly on the platform. Were it no for that monopoly it would rarely be used. I'm just glad JS is as good as it is, considering it didn't have to be good. It could have been even w…

But WebAssembly was just made a new standard by W3, which, correct me if I'm wrong, will allow browsers to natively support literally any other language the developers choose.

Yes, but only if those languages do not interact with the platform (the platform being "webpages"). DOM manipulation requires JavaScript. So, it is still the case that JavaScript is the only language with first class support.

Re: Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs – JavaScript Adaptation

#138

Post by ptx »

s_y_n_t_a_x wrote: post #77
YorickPeterse wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it's such a great language that `{} + []` is a valid program.

What an extremely weak criticism that has been played out. 1) Don't concatenate them in the first place 2) Use TypeScript Pro-tip, if the world is going JS and you don't get it, it's probably you. With JS (TypeScript) I can develop on every platform natively (React Native). I can compile to native code. (AssemblyScript). I'm not saying you can't do those things on other languages, but JS is becoming a powerhouse than…

> develop on every platform natively (React Native)

If "native" means bundling a runtime and having your program pass serialized messages to a different thread where the actual native platform code lives, the same can be said for any language. You just need to build the wrappers for the native API – which is a lot of work but could be done for QBASIC running in DOSBox just as well as for JS running on V8.

Re: Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs – JavaScript Adaptation

#139

Post by WilliamEdward »

vmchale wrote: post #78
scottoreily wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Typical dramatic Hacker News user. JS is a great language and enjoyed by millions of developers.

> JS is a great language literally no one believes this

I do. I love vanilla JS especially. The way it interacts with the DOM and the way JSON works makes more sense to me than most other languages, and this is coming from a python user and newly lisp user.

Not everyone has the same brain as you. People enjoy things you don't understand.

Re: Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs – JavaScript Adaptation

#140

Post by colejohnson66 »

rounce wrote: post #133
colejohnson66 wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

JavaScript may have its quirks, but TypeScript is a great improvement. And with a few tweaks to your package.json, you can code in TS for Node.js!

What are these tweaks you speak of?

Just do a search for “use TypeScript with Node”:

https://medium.com/javascript-in-plain-english/typescript-wi...

https://blog.risingstack.com/building-a-node-js-app-with-typ...

Basically, you install the `typescript` package which gives you `tsc`. Then you configure Node to run your program with `tsc` through your package.json.

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