JS has been around for a while. Web developers's have known it for a while.
Have they? What was the biggest JavaScript application you deployed five years ago? For me, it was maybe 5k, and did nothing more than some basic form validation and content hiding effects. And now? Well, our biggest will be including almost all of ExtJS which is I think about 400k, compressed. jQuery is ~60k, compressed. Our use of JavaScript is definitely not declining. Is yours?
I think it's only in the past two years that the work of the JS library developers have proven that large JavaScript apps are plausible. They've also smoothed over most of the browser compatibility issues--which are no small part of the historic tendency to avoid doing any heavy lifting in JavaScript. Browsers are also getting better about those issues. That standardization plus quality libraries has made it more reasonable to "write once, run anywhere" with heavy JavaScript usage. Despite the cynicism with which the phrase is usually uttered, it is still a very valuable trait in a language.
I don't think AppJet has played any role in JavaScript history to date...but they might, as they're very smart fellows. Far more important players include Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, Mozilla, Adobe, and the Open Source library developers. And, of course, a few other YC alumni have been major contributors to the JavaScript juggernaut: John Resig of jQuery fame had a YC-backed startup before joining Mozilla Foundation, and Blake Ross and Joe Hewitt started YC-backed Parakey.
Anyway, it's not that I think JavaScript is perfectly suited for all tasks--or better suited for any particular task than X language. I just think it is well enough suited for most tasks (including a few for which Ruby, Python, Perl, Haskell, Lisp, etc. never will likely be at all suitable for...like the client-side of rich web apps), and the friction of switching between multiple languages, and the interoperation cost and complexity, is high enough, that JavaScript could pretty easily become the de facto standard language for web apps. And, since most of us can agree that nearly all end user apps will eventually be web apps, that means most apps.
Again, I really wouldn't want to bet against it. I'm glad I happen to find JavaScript to be a very pretty language. It has some rough spots, but overall, I don't mind working with it. It's biggest problems, I find, are caused by the DOM and its not quite comfortable connection to JavaScript.
Have they? What was the biggest JavaScript application you deployed five years ago? For me, it was maybe 5k, and did nothing more than some basic form validation and content hiding effects. And now? Well, our biggest will be including almost all of ExtJS which is I think about 400k, compressed. jQuery is ~60k, compressed. Our use of JavaScript is definitely not declining. Is yours?
I think it's only in the past two years that the work of the JS library developers have proven that large JavaScript apps are plausible. They've also smoothed over most of the browser compatibility issues--which are no small part of the historic tendency to avoid doing any heavy lifting in JavaScript. Browsers are also getting better about those issues. That standardization plus quality libraries has made it more reasonable to "write once, run anywhere" with heavy JavaScript usage. Despite the cynicism with which the phrase is usually uttered, it is still a very valuable trait in a language.
I don't think AppJet has played any role in JavaScript history to date...but they might, as they're very smart fellows. Far more important players include Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, Mozilla, Adobe, and the Open Source library developers. And, of course, a few other YC alumni have been major contributors to the JavaScript juggernaut: John Resig of jQuery fame had a YC-backed startup before joining Mozilla Foundation, and Blake Ross and Joe Hewitt started YC-backed Parakey.
Anyway, it's not that I think JavaScript is perfectly suited for all tasks--or better suited for any particular task than X language. I just think it is well enough suited for most tasks (including a few for which Ruby, Python, Perl, Haskell, Lisp, etc. never will likely be at all suitable for...like the client-side of rich web apps), and the friction of switching between multiple languages, and the interoperation cost and complexity, is high enough, that JavaScript could pretty easily become the de facto standard language for web apps. And, since most of us can agree that nearly all end user apps will eventually be web apps, that means most apps.
Again, I really wouldn't want to bet against it. I'm glad I happen to find JavaScript to be a very pretty language. It has some rough spots, but overall, I don't mind working with it. It's biggest problems, I find, are caused by the DOM and its not quite comfortable connection to JavaScript.