6mo ago

Stop comparing programming languages

Python is versatile
JavaScript is powerful
Ruby is elegant
C is essential
C++
Java is robust

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182 comments

Are those adjectives randomly chosen?
- Yeah, JavaScript powerful? How?
  
  By running everthing in a single thread obviously. Won't get more powerful than that
  
  good luck doing frontend development without it, but it can also do backend development
  it can do everything
  
  The thing it can do best is bewilder developers with it's strange choices
  
  i wouldn't want to program in pure assembly either but asm is definitely powerful
  
  I would argue that ASM isn't "powerful". It's direct. You can access advanced features of a CPUs architecture with the trade off limited portability. Sometimes it's necessary but power comes from being able to express complex control and data structures in a concise and readable amount of text.
  The subjective topic of what "concise and readable" means is where the language wars come in.
  
  but it can also do backend development
  The same way a rusty spoon can dig a hole, sure.
  
  That makes it versatile, not powerful.
  When I hear powerful language, I think of languages that are good at intensive tasks like assembly, c, rust, Python (because of numpy, pandas, pyspark, cuda, etc.).
  
  Python is powerful because it easily wraps C libraries that do real work! Just kidding mostly.
  But yeah, js isn't a language I would describe as powerful. Ubiquitous? More capable than you would expect given it's history? Bloated?
  
  Python is powerful because it easily wraps C libraries that do real work! Just kidding mostly.
  Not kidding. There's no rule against that though. It's good at it's niche.
  
  Does that not put JS (node) back on the table?
  I'd say it's the low level language doing the heavy lifting, python or JS in this scenario are just front-ends.
  Hell, I think FORTH has C bindings, that's not power, that's mental illness
  
  Sure, but there are good and bad frontends. JavaScript has a tendency to silently fly off the handle in mysterious ways due to the crazy type system. Python will typically fail more predictably, and is famously easy to write. I know nothing about FORTH, honestly.
  
  Dw, no one does.
  
  I exercised JavaScript out of some of my apps, and I'm happier for it.
  
  Did they get a good workout?
  
  if its acceptable to force javascript onto the backend and everywhere else, then why not write the frontend in rust, or anything else than can compile to wasm ?
  
  WASM has no native ability to access most web APIs, including the DOM. JavaScript is literally unavoidable on the front end.
  
  javascript cannot be compiled natively for the backend or desktop either...
  also libraries like wasm bindgen allow a developer to write almost no javascript. and i wouldnt could a few lines of bootstrapping.
  im dont advocate for wasm when its not necessary. nor do i advocate for backend js when its not necessary.
  
  Sorry, I'm not sure what your point is. I realize that you can almost completely avoid JavaScript, but the point I'm making is merely that there is a real technical limitation that limits the choices developers can make for front-end code, and although WASM is making great strides in breaking down that barrier (something I've been thrilled to see happen, but which is going much more slowly than I had hoped), the limitation is still there. Conversely, such a barrier has never existed on the backend, except in the sense that C limits what all other languages can do.
  
  my point is that languages have their places.
  javascript is great for the frontend. not just because it's the only choice, but it's also a lot easier to write code for ui than say, C or rust.
  however i do not see a reason why it needs to run on servers or desktop apps, bar a few cases. i know node is popular, but i think fullstack devs just like to have everything in the same language, even if it makes it harder to use and slower to run.
  likewise C, rust, go, whatever, are great for backends, embedded etc, but they shouldnt be ran on in the browser, unless there is a specific reason like heavy computation with little dom interaction.
  just because a barrier does not exist doesnt mean that we should write programs in a language not designed for the domain.
  
  I'm honestly not convinced JavaScript is good even for the front-end, because it's intentionally designed to swallow, ignore, and otherwise minimize errors; which is not helpful at all for development of any software. My point is that the only reason JavaScript is dominant in front-end development is that, prior to WASM, it was literally the only option; if that hadn't been the case, I doubt it would have become nearly so widely used.
  
  i actually agree, but i think its more the issue that modern websites are designed like desktop apps. having a weakly typed and flexible langauage like js is fine when youre only adding a little interactivity to an otherwise mostly functional website.
  
  IIRC JavaScript + TypeScript is the biggest demographic of engineers in the industry if you go by GitHub stats
  I suppose you could call that power in a way
  
  JavaScript is AN UNAVOIDABLE HARDSHIP
- Pretty much so.

182 comments