JavaScript's popularity appears to have peaked | Hacker News Reader

JavaScript's popularity appears to have peaked

javamagazine.mozaicreader.com

21 pointslolptdr33 comments

At risk of sounding overly cynical, Java-orientated article from the editor of Java Magazine implies JavaScript's popularity will wane, making 2nd placed Java it's heir apparent?

Seems a slightly predictable suggestion, given the context.

Just to put in to words what I expect many are thinking:

Javascript is a spec, thus the rise (and fall) of transpiled languages is more a testament inevitable and increasing utility of Javascript (you know, the result of a passionate tryst between Brendan Eich and Netscape, in which Sun looked on in the corner slowly smoking a ciggarette...).

ahem

I guess I can see the eventual end of Javascript-only everywhere. If a browser/device will run my coffeescript/dart as navtive, then suh-weet.

Anyway. I found it interesting how we interpret things differently. For instance, to my mind the rise of Java on Github was more enterprise cautiously leaving the their old-country (SVN) and following the hot-shit™ languages into cloud based git. Rather than a new flowering of the language.

Gratz to the Java team for adding some functional stuff. But is it just me or does this article have a HINT of: "Welp, we just killed Javascript - what will Java dominate next?"

I feel like JavaScript is just kicking the revs up to high speed. ES2015 is a huge leap ahead for JavaScript and along with ReactJS actually makes programming web front ends real fun instead of a major pain and chore.

Most platforms continue to evolve and improve even after it peaks. ColdFusion has a new release every couple of years, after all :-)

I have a joking-but-kind-of-serious theory that javascript popularity peaks at about the same time as the market does: 2001 you had peak DHTML, 2008 you had peak Web 2.0, now we have the SPA-pocalypse.

My joking-but-kind-of-serious explanation is that there is a common cause: irrational optimism.

Without any references to facts other than the writers own experience.

Any peak in popularity can not be found when you look at the actual numbers: http://githut.info

Looking at the numbers on a single repository website will give you lousy data. You can see the same thing on Github: it became popular with the Ruby community, so Ruby is one of the most popular languages there.

Open source websites are also problematic because they don't capture what a lot of businesses are doing (which is Java, the replacement for COBOL).

> Looking at the numbers on a single repository website will give you lousy data.

But lousy data is better than no data at all.

Even Tiobe will give you better data than that

Does this not basically say that javascript is still being used but people are opting to use transpiled siblings?

As far as I'm concerned we will still be adhering to all the core language constructs for the most adopted interpreter until a viable ancestor arrives.

> Does this not basically say that javascript is still being used but people are opting to use transpiled siblings?

It sounds like it. So in the grand scheme I guess JS is still growing, except that it's increasingly not written directly. While it's useful to look at TypeScript & Co. somewhat separately, it makes little sense to treat them as completely separate and conclude that JS is now shrinking.

The ancestor is called WebAssembly. It would be simply crazy to bet one's career on JS now. Pick a solid non-fringe functional language which compiles to LLVM. It will run in browser in 2-3 years.

I agree that javascript will be replaced in time, but that article in no way asserts that javascript is declining in favor of WebAssembly. WebAssembly shows promise, but it nowhere even near ready to begin mass adoption.

I have no issue with javascript fading away over time, that's just not what's happening right now.

Which means you can actually use it in 20-30 years

Yeah, that's what the author thinks:

people are switching to things like Dart, Coffeescript, and Typescript.

I have yet to meet a human being who has used Dart, or could identify its syntax.

I know it's used extensively inside of Google.

So, what happens when you try to read that article without Javascript enabled?

> You must have JavaScript enabled to view digital editions.

I see.

One problem with the TIOBE Index is that the data is tainted by all of yesterday's web pages that nobody's bothered to take down yet. If you look at Google Trends, for example, PowerShell has overtaken Perl in the last year or two. TIOBE is still looking at the big corpus of Perl stuff from the early 2000's, placing it at #8, and says PowerShell isn't even in the top 50.

Uh wait - there is a Java Magazine?? Editorials on just java? Mind blown.

Is this a parody?

I had to check the date on the article to see if the web site was merely antiquated, rather than ridiculous.

What a horrible reading experience.

Hmm the title interested me, but on my phone it tried to load an amazingly laggy 3 column interface that frustrated me to try and read.

Shame.

If you're using a language based on it's popularity rather than it's utility then you're doing it wrong.

Then most JS devs made a terrible mistake, because every blog post about it's "merits" was praising it's ever growing popularity.

That means the authors of those blog posts have made the mistake of conflating popularity with usefulness, but I don't think the problem necessarily extends to "most JS developers".

Pretty biased obviously!

Is the reader written in Javascript? Very laggy on mobile.

Doesn't load on OS X Safari either: The Reader Bootstrap request generated an error or timed out. See new window for details.

LOL

Thank fucking god

Oh.

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