JS overtaking the world

Excerpts from Richard Eng's message of 2015-12-01 16:27:18 +0100:
> <a href="https://medium.freecodecamp.com/learn-to-code-by-coding-d1e241de81c0#.noyvnuw2a" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" onmousedown="this.href=&#39;https://www.google.com/url?q\75https%3A%2F%2Fmedium.freecodecamp.com%2Flearn-to-code-by-coding-d1e241de81c0%23.noyvnuw2a\46sa\75D\46sntz\0751\46usg\75AFQjCNFMHwM74IbC3MJF6VFGI9BuPU7qeg&#39;;return true;" onclick="this.href=&#39;https://www.google.com/url?q\75https%3A%2F%2Fmedium.freecodecamp.com%2Flearn-to-code-by-coding-d1e241de81c0%23.noyvnuw2a\46sa\75D\46sntz\0751\46usg\75AFQjCNFMHwM74IbC3MJF6VFGI9BuPU7qeg&#39;;return true;">https://medium.freecodecamp.com/learn-to-code-by-coding-d1e241de81c0#.noyvnuw2a
> This sickens me. I'm finding more and more articles touting JS as the
> universal programming language. At this rate, it will supplant Java, C#,
> Python, etc., for nearly everything in IT. JS is a horrible language, but
> no one seems to care. It's a cancer, and it's metastasizing...

unfortunately, this has been a long time coming, and it's going to be much
worse, but there is some hope at the end.

first of all, we lost the fight 2 decades ago when javascript was invented.
if browser developers at that time had realized what role a language embedded
in the browser would have in the future, everyone would have invented their own
language, we would have had some language wars about which language(s) to
standardize on, and would have had a chance at getting something better than
javascript.

instead javascript was mostly ignored for a decade and everyone just thought,
yeah, we need to support it, but it is not a critical piece of the web, so who
cares if it is bad?

now it's to late to change that. all we can do is doctor on the symptoms (ES6)
and write transpilers (coffescript, typescript, smalltalk...)

javascript is the lingua franca because the browser is the future desktop.
javascript is taking the role of php. and to be honest, i do like javascript a
bit better than php, so i am not all that bitter about it.

the biggest problem we face is the common believe that the most used
programming language is the language everyone should learn first.
we saw that with java in universities, and we'll see it with javascript.

and the worst is yet to come: we now have compilers that can use javascript as
a sort of assembly language. with the webbrowser becoming the desktop,
javascript is becoming the very foundation of our operating system.

the good news is that, with javascript becoming the new assembly language, we
will stop using it directly. does anyone here still write in assembly? not
really. more and more people will want to bring their favourite language to
transpile to javascript and we will see browser applications written in many
different languages, and javascript itself will become as invisible as assembly
language is today.

now get this: with their IDE amber, pharoJS and squeakJS are already ahead of
the curve. the only other competitor is javascript itself. the day when people
realize that they don't need to write javascript anymore, they will look at
what other languages they can use for browser development and then they may
discover smalltalk as being there longer than many others.

greetings, martin.

--
eKita                   -   the online platform for your entire academic life
--
chief engineer                                                       eKita.co
pike programmer      <a href="http://pike.lysator.liu.se" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" onmousedown="this.href=&#39;http://www.google.com/url?q\75http%3A%2F%2Fpike.lysator.liu.se\46sa\75D\46sntz\0751\46usg\75AFQjCNEvQ03oa3TB9z8nTXi-CkmrjqorFA&#39;;return true;" onclick="this.href=&#39;http://www.google.com/url?q\75http%3A%2F%2Fpike.lysator.liu.se\46sa\75D\46sntz\0751\46usg\75AFQjCNEvQ03oa3TB9z8nTXi-CkmrjqorFA&#39;;return true;">pike.lysator.liu.se    <a href="http://caudium.net" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" onmousedown="this.href=&#39;http://www.google.com/url?q\75http%3A%2F%2Fcaudium.net\46sa\75D\46sntz\0751\46usg\75AFQjCNEYzslt9t1j0dGxb_Ka8faLOGHwqQ&#39;;return true;" onclick="this.href=&#39;http://www.google.com/url?q\75http%3A%2F%2Fcaudium.net\46sa\75D\46sntz\0751\46usg\75AFQjCNEYzslt9t1j0dGxb_Ka8faLOGHwqQ&#39;;return true;">caudium.net     <a href="http://societyserver.org" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" onmousedown="this.href=&#39;http://www.google.com/url?q\75http%3A%2F%2Fsocietyserver.org\46sa\75D\46sntz\0751\46usg\75AFQjCNE_5aJ_mdZkvSrOv1cEqLp4WlWhag&#39;;return true;" onclick="this.href=&#39;http://www.google.com/url?q\75http%3A%2F%2Fsocietyserver.org\46sa\75D\46sntz\0751\46usg\75AFQjCNE_5aJ_mdZkvSrOv1cEqLp4WlWhag&#39;;return true;">societyserver.org
secretary                                                      <a href="http://beijinglug.org" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" onmousedown="this.href=&#39;http://www.google.com/url?q\75http%3A%2F%2Fbeijinglug.org\46sa\75D\46sntz\0751\46usg\75AFQjCNGcMonCqhzNZNa3GwWBKaTiTm8E4Q&#39;;return true;" onclick="this.href=&#39;http://www.google.com/url?q\75http%3A%2F%2Fbeijinglug.org\46sa\75D\46sntz\0751\46usg\75AFQjCNGcMonCqhzNZNa3GwWBKaTiTm8E4Q&#39;;return true;">beijinglug.org
mentor                                                           <a href="http://fossasia.org" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" onmousedown="this.href=&#39;http://www.google.com/url?q\75http%3A%2F%2Ffossasia.org\46sa\75D\46sntz\0751\46usg\75AFQjCNFMwaBnF0Iu9Prg3-iLxZ5BhKSD_g&#39;;return true;" onclick="this.href=&#39;http://www.google.com/url?q\75http%3A%2F%2Ffossasia.org\46sa\75D\46sntz\0751\46usg\75AFQjCNFMwaBnF0Iu9Prg3-iLxZ5BhKSD_g&#39;;return true;">fossasia.org
foresight developer  <a href="http://foresightlinux.org" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" onmousedown="this.href=&#39;http://www.google.com/url?q\75http%3A%2F%2Fforesightlinux.org\46sa\75D\46sntz\0751\46usg\75AFQjCNHaJ9_Y9lcY21yw_D2lZAE3mu_Jtg&#39;;return true;" onclick="this.href=&#39;http://www.google.com/url?q\75http%3A%2F%2Fforesightlinux.org\46sa\75D\46sntz\0751\46usg\75AFQjCNHaJ9_Y9lcY21yw_D2lZAE3mu_Jtg&#39;;return true;">foresightlinux.org                            <a href="http://realss.com" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" onmousedown="this.href=&#39;http://www.google.com/url?q\75http%3A%2F%2Frealss.com\46sa\75D\46sntz\0751\46usg\75AFQjCNFHih6WMCaKD68bQT72_Uh4uQD5eQ&#39;;return true;" onclick="this.href=&#39;http://www.google.com/url?q\75http%3A%2F%2Frealss.com\46sa\75D\46sntz\0751\46usg\75AFQjCNFHih6WMCaKD68bQT72_Uh4uQD5eQ&#39;;return true;">realss.com
unix sysadmin
Martin Bähr          working in china        <a href="http://societyserver.org/mbaehr/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" onmousedown="this.href=&#39;http://www.google.com/url?q\75http%3A%2F%2Fsocietyserver.org%2Fmbaehr%2F\46sa\75D\46sntz\0751\46usg\75AFQjCNFHqg9eOMnanxXjpobL7Vb80JtF5g&#39;;return true;" onclick="this.href=&#39;http://www.google.com/url?q\75http%3A%2F%2Fsocietyserver.org%2Fmbaehr%2F\46sa\75D\46sntz\0751\46usg\75AFQjCNFHqg9eOMnanxXjpobL7Vb80JtF5g&#39;;return true;">http://societyserver.org/mbaehr/