Re:JavaScript right on the hardware
by ams6110 on Wednesday August 14, 2013 @11:45PM
(#6216036)
Language popularity is a pretty fickle thing. It was not too long ago that you'd be laughed out of the room if you suggested using Javascript for any kind of serious work. Perl, once the king of scripting languages by orders of magnitude, is now viewed as being something close to COBOL: a few old guys know it, but none of the cool kids will touch it.
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Re:JavaScript right on the hardware
by smacktoward on Thursday August 15, 2013 @01:23AM
(#6216308)
JavaScript has a uniquely privileged position, though. It is the only language you can use to script the browser. As long as that is the case (and browsers are a relevant programming environment), you will always have web developers who know it, either as their primary language or as a secondary one.
Imagine if the only way you could script Linux servers was in Perl -- it's hard to imagine it falling off in popularity the way it did in our universe. Other languages supplanted it because other languages could supplant it.
Re:JavaScript right on the hardware
by WalterSear on Thursday August 15, 2013 @12:29AM
(#6216163)
The more things change, the more things change. Javascript isn't Perl and isn't being used like Perl. For example, people aren't turning it into an hardware embedded language.