I wrote an entire email service (https://port87.com/) in JavaScript (Node.js and SvelteKit). I know some people have strong feelings against JavaScript, but the fact that you can build basically anything in it is pretty nice.
I mean yeah you can do anything with it like most other languages. The problem comes in with the unstable ecosystem JavaScript has.
You simply don’t have longevity with libraries and frameworks. They churn and become deprecated far too quickly for really any stable project that requires a low maintenance burden.
When I say “build anything”, I mean it works in nearly every environment, including natively in the browser. I can write the same code on the server as in the browser as in a mobile app as in a desktop app.
React has been around, and improving, for 12 years. You can run code from the first version today. The DOM has been stable since about 1998, so anything built on it should still run today.
It is true that JavaScript libraries tend to change quickly, but that doesn’t mean old versions stop working. It’s not like the native Linux ecosystem, where you need to build on the current kernel and libraries or it won’t work, it’s more like Docker or Flatpak, where you can build your libraries into your bundle and they will keep working. That’s why websites that were built 20 years ago, with the libraries of the time, still work today.
I wrote an entire email service (https://port87.com/) in JavaScript (Node.js and SvelteKit). I know some people have strong feelings against JavaScript, but the fact that you can build basically anything in it is pretty nice.
There is many languages that you can build anything with… Although I’ll agree the front end side is more tedious
As long as you’re not doing number crunching, use whatever makes you more productive.
I mean yeah you can do anything with it like most other languages. The problem comes in with the unstable ecosystem JavaScript has.
You simply don’t have longevity with libraries and frameworks. They churn and become deprecated far too quickly for really any stable project that requires a low maintenance burden.
When I say “build anything”, I mean it works in nearly every environment, including natively in the browser. I can write the same code on the server as in the browser as in a mobile app as in a desktop app.
React has been around, and improving, for 12 years. You can run code from the first version today. The DOM has been stable since about 1998, so anything built on it should still run today.
It is true that JavaScript libraries tend to change quickly, but that doesn’t mean old versions stop working. It’s not like the native Linux ecosystem, where you need to build on the current kernel and libraries or it won’t work, it’s more like Docker or Flatpak, where you can build your libraries into your bundle and they will keep working. That’s why websites that were built 20 years ago, with the libraries of the time, still work today.