This is largely centred on browsers these days (ironically it used to be better for browsers and worse for server, now it's the opposite).
However I'll say two things in javascript's defence:
(1) No other language has yet taken on supporting server and browser environments simultaneously: it's unlikely to be easy for the first.
(2) I have a strong suspicion it'll get much much easier one Node moves past it's CommonJS roots and gets to full community ES module support to match browsers
> The JS ecosystem has six ways to do anything and four of those aren't compatible with your previous choices. Tooling gets extended with endless helpers and plugins to the point where I don't even know what a given command does anymore.
No idea what you're talking about here though. Is this about NPM? What 6 different ways? What tooling extensions? This sounds like vague projection.
> Python venvs and pip are easy enough to understand
If only "understanding" was near enough. Good luck putting together a robust unattended install routine for anything python: does the user have existing venvs, should this script create a new one, where?, how should the user easily init it?, should it be a global init??, autoinit via bash or shortcut via bash alias? What about Elvish? What about fish? What about <Python is a horrible ecosystem, please don't get me started on its ills>...
ASP.NET has allowed you to write purely backend code and add interactivity forever. Of course you can't get around JS in the front-end, but a mix of backend and frontend code existed long before Node got any popularity.
> (2) I have a strong suspicion it'll get much much easier one Node moves past it's CommonJS roots and gets to full community ES module support to match browsers
I agree. Then again, the Node ecosystem always seems to be moving from one standard to another.
The JS ecosystem has six ways to do anything and four of those aren't compatible with your previous choices. Tooling gets extended with endless helpers and plugins to the point where I don't even know what a given command does anymore.
Python venvs and pip are easy enough to understand. Cargo and dotnet are also clear enough if you read their help pages. NPM and Yarn, however, only do a fraction of what you'd want them to do out of the box, forcing every tool out there to set up their custom system of helpers and tooling just to get them to run.