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Ask HN: What programming language do you think is the best for Web Applications?

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Re: Ask HN: What programming language do you think is the best for Web Applications?

#22
I've been doing web development since the browser wars and Perl scripts sitting in a cgi-bin directory. The HTTP verbs haven't changed much in 20+ years. XHR (XML HTTP Request, aka async JS, aka AJAX) has been around for almost that long.

Ultimately it doesn't matter what internet commenters think, the best language is always going to be the one you are most comfortable and productive using. PHP, Python, Ruby, Elixir, .NET/C#, Java, Perl, JavaScript, etc. - all of them can accomplish the task of a running web application. I would lean towards an ecosystem that has lots of libraries to pick from and good documentation.

Re: Ask HN: What programming language do you think is the best for Web Applications?

#23

JavaScript is a highly productive for Web Applications, although I also heavily use other alternatives for several reasons, But regardless, that is why it is my candidate for the best programming language especially working with the Web and Web applications in general. Anything beyond that is either niches or outside general purpose web. JavaScript can do: - advance web applications (electron, NodeJS) - ETL on the go…

JS is ubiquitous. It's also a primitive, sloppily-designed language that has caused untold economic damage. It's not as bad a language as, say, Perl, but it might be the single biggest thing holding back the Web as a platform today.

I do understand that it's not entirely fair to criticize it for being sloppy, since it was supposed to only be a stopgap to be used for a few years in the 1990s until the hypothetical better language came along. Perhaps WASM means this long wait is finally over, but I don't want to get my hopes up.

Re: Ask HN: What programming language do you think is the best for Web Applications?

#24

JavaScript is a highly productive for Web Applications, although I also heavily use other alternatives for several reasons, But regardless, that is why it is my candidate for the best programming language especially working with the Web and Web applications in general. Anything beyond that is either niches or outside general purpose web. JavaScript can do: - advance web applications (electron, NodeJS) - ETL on the go…

JS is ubiquitous. It's also a primitive, sloppily-designed language that has caused untold economic damage. It's not as bad a language as, say, Perl, but it might be the single biggest thing holding back the Web as a platform today. I do understand that it's not entirely fair to criticize it for being sloppy, since it was supposed to only be a stopgap to be used for a few years in the 1990s until the hypothetical bet…

I'd say javascript is the new Perl (I used to love writing perl way back). It is undoubtedly useful, but can be horrific to read. It is heavily used to get things done in a pragmatic way.

The difference I see is that it will not likely die as quickly and quietly due to how distributed the code is.

Re: Ask HN: What programming language do you think is the best for Web Applications?

#26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

JS is ubiquitous. It's also a primitive, sloppily-designed language that has caused untold economic damage. It's not as bad a language as, say, Perl, but it might be the single biggest thing holding back the Web as a platform today. I do understand that it's not entirely fair to criticize it for being sloppy, since it was supposed to only be a stopgap to be used for a few years in the 1990s until the hypothetical bet…

I'd say javascript is the new Perl (I used to love writing perl way back). It is undoubtedly useful, but can be horrific to read. It is heavily used to get things done in a pragmatic way. The difference I see is that it will not likely die as quickly and quietly due to how distributed the code is.

Now that you mention it, the resemblance is pretty clear. I also have to admit that I agree that we probably are stuck with it for the future. There are languages I think much more highly of that compile to WASM, and that's a technique that I plan to use and that I anticipate gaining traction. But there's just so much JS around.

Re: Ask HN: What programming language do you think is the best for Web Applications?

#27
As other posters say: there is no best language for web applications. However, some languages have richer options for web programming - libraries and frameworks. Popularity also makes it's easier to find answers and tutorials. Other things to consider: ease of deployment, performance.

It's fine to use a programming language not normally known for web programming. Just remember if web-related libraries and documentation doesn't exist, you will need to write them yourself.

Re: Ask HN: What programming language do you think is the best for Web Applications?

#30
PHP is a great option to start with, but after a few years of working with the PHP, I'm slowly switching to a JS stack: NodeJS, NestJS, TypeScript, GraphQL. It gives me much more fun than coding in a php, even with organized framework like Symfony.
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