JavaScript is still alive not because it's worthy of being alive (compared to the four other languages you mentioned), but because it was first and became well entrenched. COBOL is still alive too...
ClojureScript and Reason are superior languages, period. They will live long happy lives, too.
Re:Ask HN: How do I learn JavaScript?
by vorpalhex on Wednesday February 19, 2020 @01:15PM
(#22368289)
Oddly enough, being a superior language isn't the same thing as being a language anyone actually wants to use. There's a reason Python and JS are some of the most popular languages in the world despite "superior languages" existing.
I suspect that most of the ones I name will join the bone pile of the many other "superior languages" or continue to be used at most by a niche few.
Re:Ask HN: How do I learn JavaScript?
by woodrowbarlow on Wednesday February 19, 2020 @11:07AM
(#22366737)
something else will come along that's even more superior, and the tooling surrounding your once-superior codebases will bitrot as the community jumps onto the next passing ship and you're caught holding the bag.
Re:Ask HN: How do I learn JavaScript?
by jazzyjackson on Wednesday February 19, 2020 @03:12PM
(#22369540)
Betamax and HDDVD were superior too.
Re:Ask HN: How do I learn JavaScript?
by finnjohnsen2 on Friday February 21, 2020 @06:58AM
(#22382492)
I get your point. However I recently encountered 5 year old javascript and it was horrible. Full out jQuery and the (function(export){})(arg) pattern. And lots of dead test in some some long gone test library. But your point is valid if it were CoffeeScript and jQuery. That would be even worse for sure.
There is no relief in sight and it'll suck for a long time because everything is very fluid everywhere. Legacy will suck.
But if you want to be as productive and confident as you can these days; my take it is to not engange in vanilla JavaScript.
Re:Ask HN: How do I learn JavaScript?
by azangru on Wednesday February 19, 2020 @10:03AM
(#22366018)
It really feels that with typescript it may be finally different. Deno, the new version of Node, will speak typescript natively; and the adoption and satisfaction rates for typescript are over the roof. Coffeescript or clojurescript don't even come close.
Re:Ask HN: How do I learn JavaScript?
by mpfundstein on Thursday February 20, 2020 @03:30PM
(#22378289)
Deno is doa
Re:Ask HN: How do I learn JavaScript?
by mxschumacher on Wednesday February 19, 2020 @09:49AM
(#22365866)
how common are larger vanilla JS codebases?
Re:Ask HN: How do I learn JavaScript?
by vorpalhex on Wednesday February 19, 2020 @09:55AM
(#22365939)
There are millions.
Re:Ask HN: How do I learn JavaScript?
by mxschumacher on Wednesday February 19, 2020 @11:08AM
(#22366753)
can you name a few?
+ Use Typescript (no, it's not the same as JS)
+ Use ClojureScript
+ Use Elm
+ Use Reason
+ Use ...
If you go back about five years, you'll find this pattern also exists, except all the things people were saying to use are dead. Dead like a forgotten Egyptian pharaoh - buried and never to be seen again.
Unfortunately, all the code bases written in these poor JS-likes are still alive and I and many other poor souls still have to maintain the dang things.
You know what's still alive? Javascript. You know what still basically works the same? Javascript. You know what codebases from five or seven years ago I don't mind maintaining as much? Javascript.