Every time I read articles like the following from John Ankarström, I wonder why JavaScript is (still) so popular.
Let’s Replace JavaScript with Something Better
https://john.ankarstrom.se/english/texts/replacing-javascript/
Well, to be honest, I haven’t done bigger projects in JavaScript yet. So I do not really know how bad it is.
when theres really something better, it might replace javascript. the main points against coffeescript seem to be: 1. it cant do what js can do, without js 2. it isnt really different. that said, coffeescript has inspired js development (to some degree) at this point.
“whats better than javascript” is a really difficult question to answer. all the obvious answers point to something that you would not want to use the way javascript is used. would i like a browser that uses python instead of js? yes. is that a good idea? no, its an absolutely terrible idea. js and the browser do isolation in a way that python doesnt. you can just run python in js, and you can run js from python. but “whats better than javascript?” everything. ok, ok– a lot of things. none of which can really be used like js.
its not just tying it to the browser. js is made for that. java was better, but look what happened. js ate its lunch, and java lingers as other things while js has pretty much entirely filled the niche java was supposed to do better than js does. i would love a js alternative in the browser. sadly, i dont think that will ever happen even if we really want it to.
Do you have experience with TypeScript? My colleagues keep telling me that it’s way better to use than JavaScript.
well im no fan of weak typing, and i like python (dynamic, but not weak.) in theory i should like ts, but in practice i use js too rarely (on occasions when its practically indispensable, its worth it) to worry about typing– and the added step of working with typescript. i do suppose it would benefit me to try it out though. i am fairly broad when it comes to software, helping people learn programming in general. when i was married i tried teaching my wife js, i wrote her a small language in bash, and taught her to use ssh and scp. its worth trying typescript just so i can make a more informed comparison, or help someone get started with it.