I've been noticing a lot of negative feelings towards JavaScript lately, and I'm genuinely curious why this is. People often brush it off as 'ragebait' when I ask for opinions, but I'd like to understand the root of the disdain. Is it related to its design, quirks, or something else? I want to gather some real insights and experiences about what makes JS frustrating to some. Also, since I started off learning programming with JavaScript, I might be missing perspectives. Thank you!
4 Answers
As a seasoned developer, I appreciate JS for its flexibility but also recognize that the language's design can lead to messy, hard-to-maintain code. It's a double-edged sword; easy to pick up, but that low barrier means a lot of poor code floating around. Plus, working with JS often requires extra tools to catch faults that would be otherwise managed by stricter languages.
Absolutely! Type safety definitely helps, but it's frustrating when the basics are so inconsistent.
A lot of people feel that JavaScript is poorly designed; even its creator has admitted that it wasn't meant to be a great language. There are quirks like how `NaN` is not equal to itself, and its loose equality leads to many cases of unexpected behavior. If you Google 'JavaScript wat', you'll find a presentation that dives into some of its notorious issues. However, others argue that with modern JS, especially post-ES6, it has become a very capable language if you use the right tools and practices, like TypeScript and linters.
Yeah, the equality issues are infuriating. It's like you have to always remember to use `===` instead of `==` to avoid weird bugs!
Exactly! And don't get me started on how `null` and `undefined` are so confusing!
I think a big part of the dislike comes from how JS was created. It was thrown together in a hurry in the 90s for interactivity on web pages. While it's evolved, the necessity to maintain backward compatibility has kept a lot of its original quirks, thus attracting criticism. However, many developers argue that modern JS practices can overcome the older challenges.
Yeah, it feels like a language that was designed as a quick fix and just got stuck in the past.
That's true. JS has had to grow without breaking everything that came before, which makes it complicated.
I don't actually hate JavaScript; I just find that its ecosystem causes a lot of headaches. Before ES6, the language was quite a mess, but now it's more manageable. That said, the abundance of libraries and frameworks can be overwhelming, and many are poorly documented or maintained. You have to wade through a lot of junk to find good solutions.
Same here! I spent hours just trying to figure out the right libraries for a small project!
Haha, I hear you! It sometimes feels like the landscape is littered with outdated or poorly maintained tools.
Yup! I think using TypeScript mitigates many of those issues since it adds static typing to the mix.