Why is Javascript still a thing?

[Lost User]

It's a lot easier to debug than Haskell, of course that's not much of an accomplishment.

[GKP1992]

I agree that Javascript does what it is supposed to, but sometimes following its logic becomes a little difficult. And then it snowballs from there. Gets worse every hour, and leaves you with frustration. The lack of coding practices in javascript or the lack of people willing to follow is also to blame. These are the same problems "daddy languages" have faced and tried to resolve over the years. But in the end, everything has its goods and bads. I just wish that it learned from other language's mistakes/flaws. Anyways CP makes working a lot easier. I just had to rant somewhere, but here I also get some feedback which is always nice. :-D I just might finish this today.:thumbsup:

I am not the one who knocks. I never knock. In fact, I hate knocking. Just barge in will'Ya?

[Lost User]

It boosts IT employment, shortens the life of those same people, and as a side effect keeps thousands of coffee farm workers busy in far flung places like Kenya and Brazil (even if they only earn a dollar a week.) Think of the horror if they fixed that sort of stuff... hundreds of IT folks out in public... think of the children!

Sin tack the any key okay

[Daniel Pfeffer]

Undefined reference error - you are speaking about Java, not JavaScript.

If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack. --Winston Churchill

[kmoorevs]

GKP1992 wrote:

debugging JS code in a browser is one of the worst things about web development

:thumbsup: I think it's unanimous that most of us hate JS...especially the part where you get it working in one browser :) , then find that it fails in another! :mad: JS is the least used and least favorite of the half-dozen 'languages' that I work in regularly. As for 'Why is JavaScript still a thing', I think it's fair to say that currently, like it or not, the web runs on JavaScript. Since my duties involve a fair amount of web development, I keep my browser settings such that all script errors are reported. What really ticks me off is the apparent laziness of many developers who depend on the browser's ability to swallow errors (like an automatic on error resume next) instead of checking for 'undefined' or 'NaN'. In many cases, it becomes almost impossible to leave a website due to the onslaught of errors. X|

"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse

[Kevin McFarlane]

If you're really desperate you can always give [Elm](http://elm-lang.org/) a try... Strongly-typed with type inference. Compiles to JavaScript. Can introduce incrementally, i.e., no need to rewrite everything. No runtime exceptions. (Disclaimer, I've only had a brief look.)

Kevin

[Leng Vang]

I guess you could call me a moron, because I do write server side code in JavaScript (Nodejs that is) and a full SQL Server accessing one no less. I happen to like it better than using IIS. Only thing I missed in NodeJs is EF capability.

[Leng Vang]

JavaScript to my experience is like root beer. First taste is bad and saying who would drink such a foul taste drink. But you know what, the more you drink it, you grew to like more and more. Pretty soon you preferred it to other drinks, even genuine draft beer. I'm having second thought about how bad skunk smell. If you get just a fainted smell, it actually no bad at all. People paid good money for the scent. :-D

[Kornfeld Eliyahu Peter]

Do you mean two or more monitors...

Skipper: We'll fix it. Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this? Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.

[Kornfeld Eliyahu Peter]

I'm closing on 20 years of JavaScript. You have to accept it as JavaScript, it will solve 99% of your problems. As long as you try to bend it to be C# (or like) you will fail in so many ways... If you want to feel good with the tools, try using Notepad as editor and never hit F12 while you are in the browser... After two weeks you will see the benefits of the built in debugger... ;)

Skipper: We'll fix it. Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this? Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.

[Jon McKee]

I'm not the biggest fan of the language either but it is quite useful. Some of those frustrating bits also give you the ability to do things that simply aren't possible in other languages. That being said, I've really started to like Typescript[^]. It's a superset of JS so you basically just have to read up on how the type system works then you're good to go.

[abmv]

u seem to have a point there..also see below.. That paradigm will be defined by three key characteristics, Nadella explained: Every computing task and experience will be "multi-device, multi-sense" with multiple means of input and output; artificial intelligence will be built into every application and device; and there will be an increased use of containers, microservices and server-less technologies that provide new ways to develop, distribute and manage applications.

[Nelek]

VB6 is still used too ;P :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

M.D.V. ;) If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about? Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.

[Eytukan]

GKP1992 wrote:

if people had the choice of using a friendlier language like C# or Java, javascript would have been in the dumpster by now.

Come on, That is why we gave you Applets, Active-X, etc right? :rolleyes:

Starting to think people post kid pics in their profiles because that was the last time they were cute - Jeremy Falcon.

[KC CahabaGBA]

People see beauty in buckets of paint thrown at a canvas in a random fashion as well... Just sayin!

[Lost User]

debugging Javascript in a browser is bad. Which browser and what JS debugging tools did you use if at all? Some browsers have excellent debugging tools including step by step execution.

[bleahy48]

You did see this, right? Stanford Uni's intro to CompSci course adopts JavaScript, bins Java • The Register[^]

[CygnusBMT]

JavaScript is around for one reason: To stick it to Microsoft. There was a time when types mattered (remember why "smart" people hated VB?). There was a time when performance mattered (remember when C++ was cool?). There was a time when user interface standards mattered (Anyone remember UI guidelines?). Now all that matters is having your code - however much of a mess it may be - run in a browser even though if it's a browser running on a PC, 98% of the time it will be running on Windows. But I guess we have to worry about that 2% because it could be Linux! Or, a Mac! Two percent of the market is only a failure if it's Windows phone. Why don't we write apps for PCs? That only is a smashing success for mobile. It would never work for a PC because....Microsoft owns the PC, and we can't have that. No, let's beat our heads against the wall trying to get some hacked together language to do even the most basic things.

[MSBassSinger]

Have you considered using TypeScript? Several developers I know shifted from JS to TypeScript to better align their OO C# experience with generating JS.

[Kirk 10389821]

Yeah it has flaws. Every language and every environment does. Remember in Cobol, you had to IDENTIFY the target environment! In ForTran, God was REAL.... Unless you declared it otherwise. The biggest issue I ran into was some code declared a variable with the same name as a global IE object, and that JavaScript variable did not really work, but the code failed in IE, and worked okay in Chrome. That took me a while to debug. But the little I do with HTML, I would honestly die a thousand deaths without JavaScript!