JavaScript: Embrace teh suck

Deputy Joseph: “So if you were one of those who got turned away by the old JavaScript, I urge you to give the new boy a chance. Try doing some server programming in NodeJS or some database operations in MongoDB. Perhaps you may not get smitten, but I trust that it would trigger an epiphany nonetheless.”

Even though JavaScript is an ugly, nasty, hack, it’s probably the most widely used scripting language in the world. Browser support is now ubiquitous and it’s the only way to script the browser as far as I’m aware? I think it’s fair to say JavaScript is the duct tape of the Internet. It’s not pretty, but it’ll do in a pinch.

I’d be interested to see how NodeJS scales on a web scale project, you know, something like Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram. Is it good enough for that? It’s interpreted so I don’t see why it couldn’t be used for that. Folks love PHP, Python, and Ruby for web back ends and they’re interpreted.

I’ve had my eye of CoffeeScript for a while. It removes some of the JavaScript suck and the folks behind it are serious about its continued quality and success. The only downside? In the end it has to emit JavaScript. The only reason that’s bad is it could emit something incorrect, but hey, compilers have to emit code and we trust them, right?

People believe JavaScript is the future of development. I hope not. I hope it motivates people to make something better.

In the meantime we have to embrace the suck.