JavaScript's Future seems very bright

[Pharohbot]

Lets slow it down a bit:

> ASM.js will soon make V8 _much_ faster

> ES6 Generators will replace and solve JS's "callback hell"

> Node.js's versatility is increasing as TypeScript, ES6 improve and V8 improves (by between 2x and 6x with asm.js according to a Hacker News user)

> TypeScript, AtScript and ES6 comes with a lot of versatile improvements in it's syntax for JS

anyone disagree? Correct me if I am wrong about any of the points.

[ChaoticGood]

Lets not forget that the usage of javascript correlates with need to target the omnipresence of browser and not for merits of javascripts idioms or design pattern paradigms.

Javascript is a great hacker language. All the improvements as stated above will extend the capacity of js to quickly hack up mvp apps. With that said I think the argument can be made that javascript was never designed from the ground up to support this new omnipresent realtime persistent application platform.

For me the question remains to be seen answered if a server that was designed the ground up to be a server such as netty offers a more stable solution then node.js

I think some might say that ES6 is like putting lip stick on a pig therefore patching up JS to keep evolving as more expressive language.

Every time I run NPM install I wonder what kinds of incidental complexities I am I getting myself into. Then dred if I have learn yet another build system. Every time I run NPM I think of an old Jim Breuer joke [1] -- NPM is the "tequila" in the JS party of complexity. ASM.js is amazing, but are we getting a little too drunk on our technologies. ASM.js just might be amazing koolaid when it comes to the sobering decision to build something from "the feet up" to serve on purpose and serve it well. JS can be the jack of all trades and master of none and that can be a bad thing. One thing is for sure JS is really fun, but I would not go making a stock market exchange out a javascript codebase.

Speed is not the only performance metric out there. Think stability is often overlooked for having more power over more control. The Influenza in JS world is not spaghetti code but the more harder to grok house of cards library dependencies. This is just my amateur opinion on observations as go further down the rabbit hole of my learning to code journey.

TL;DR JS is a great hacker language but drink responsible when it comes to importing incidental complexity of additional libraries.

[1] Jim Breuer Just For Laughs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8dvpsVEJEQ [2] "The Mess We're In" by Joe Armstrong http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKXe3HUG2l4

[zoomerang]

Really, the only reason Javascripts future looks very bright is because it has a monopoly - it's the only language that runs in the browser.

Javascript is a great language for what it is, and ES6 fixes a lot of the warts - but it's still a rather mediocre language compared to many of the other options out there.

It's a great quick-n-dirty language for hacking things together, but it's less ideal for more significant projects. (You certainly can maintain large projects in Javascript, but there are much better languages for this task).

> ASM.js will soon make V8 _much_ faster

ASM.js is not Javascript, and it won't make Javascript run any faster. It's a compile target that happens to resemble a syntactically valid subset of Javascript for backwards compatibility purposes.

ASM.js can only really be used as a compile target for unmanaged languages, and acts as a bytecode that compiles down to pure assembly. It's not something that any Javascript developer would write by hand.