The most popular programming language, JavaScript, is about to “retire”?

JavaScript is a lightweight, interpreted or just-in-time compiled programming language with function first. Although it is best known as a scripting language for developing Web pages, it is also used in many non-browser environments.

It was first designed and implemented on the Netscape Navigator browser in 1995 by Brendan Eich of Netscape. JavaScript and Java share many similarities in name or syntax, but the two programming languages ​​have been very different from the start. It has many similarities with C language in syntax structure. The original intention of including Java in JavaScript was that Java was all the rage at the time, and JavaScript had Java in its name in order to grow rapidly.

From its inception to the present day, JavaScript has become a star language with an ever-expanding number of users.

According to a StackOverflow survey earlier this year, more than 65% of developers use JavaScript, far ahead of Python in second place .

According to survey, JavaScript is the most popular programming language in the world

But Douglas Crockford, the father of JSON, said in a recent interview that JavaScript has become an obstacle to progress:

” The best thing we can do now is to retire JavaScript. Twenty years ago, I was one of the few JavaScript advocates. JavaScript cobbled together nested functions and dynamic objects brilliantly. I spent ten years Time trying to correct its flaws, I had small success with ES5. But since then there has been a lot of interest in expanding the language further, rather than improving it.

So, like other fossil languages, JavaScript became an obstacle to progress. We should focus on the next language, which should be more like E than JavaScript. “

But Crockford acknowledged two difficulties with replacing JavaScript. First, we don’t yet have another language to replace JavaScript. Second, we need all browser makers to abandon JavaScript and adopt a new language, while replacing the DOM with a well-designed interface. And both of these are far from being achieved.

We mentioned earlier that the main creator of JavaScript is Brendan Eich. But when he created the language in 1995, it took only 10 days . In 2018, Eich complained at the dot.JS conference: In May of that year, I worked hard for 10 days without much rest, and finally completed the language. In 2019, Eich told American computer scientist and scholar Charles Severance that he began to turn to another HTML programming language that web designers and programmers can use and embed directly into web pages. Unlike Java, which is a professional language, you You can run real code with type declarations, but you have to write it in a compiled way. A lot of people are confused by the name JavaScript, but syntactically, it has less to do with Java than with C.

Eich called the work “a rush job,” but also said “I knew there would be bugs, there would be bugs, so I made it a malleable language. This allowed web developers to make It becomes what they want it to be.”

Crockford also pointed out that JavaScript has become very complex with performance improvements, and that a typical application today includes a build process using WebPack, Rollup, or other binders that are far from Eich’s original concept.

One developer admitted in a recent discussion on Hacker News: “JavaScript has exploded in popularity in just a few years, but its ecosystem is very complex. It’s always been a big joke, even among full-time JS developers. It seemed so crazy that none of us could keep up.”

A language that Eich rushed out in 10 days, the father of JSON Douglas Crockford said to give up it, how to do it? Let’s see what netizens say.

Netizens agree and disagree

For Douglas Crockford’s point of view, netizens expressed their views one after another, some of which agreed and some were opposed.

One Twitter user said, “I absolutely agree with him on the need to give up the DOM, it’s crap. The DOM is the culprit behind JavaScript being slow. JS is not pretty, but it’s functional. So, I don’t mind. Again. , the DOM is total rubbish.”

Source: @Kris Spookspook

However, more netizens refuted some of Crockford’s claims.

Some people say that although they hate JavaScript, Crockford talks about giving up JavaScript, but there is no alternative language. If you think something is bad, it’s better to give a better option.

Others expressed uncertainty about what other fossil languages ​​Crockford was talking about, let alone what progress he was talking about. But progress just for the sake of progress isn’t something worth pursuing, it’s just as important to keep things working.

In fact, for some shortcomings of JavaScript, we can find a good solution. JavaScript isn’t good enough? With TypeScript; runtime too slow? Use Bun; tools are too cumbersome? Use Bun or Vite. Other languages ​​are fine too, but there’s no better DX setup than JS/TS for building all kinds of things with it.

Douglas Crockford, the father of JSON

Douglas Crockford is one of the most well-known technical authorities in the field of web development. He is called the master of JavaScript by Brendan Eich, the father of JavaScript. He has served as a senior JavaScript architect at Yahoo! and a senior JavaScript architect at PayPal.

Crockford is the author of the best-selling book “How JavaScript Works” and the famous book “JavaScript: The Good Parts”, and has published research in broadcasting, learning systems, small business systems, office automation, gaming, interactive music, multimedia, location-based entertainment, social systems, and Working in the field of programming languages.

Crockford was also the inventor of the programming language Tilton and created the world’s most popular data format, the JSON Data Interchange Format.

The text and pictures in this article are from Huxiu.com