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Comment by s73ver_ | Hacker News Reader

A little off topic, but I really, really wish that people would stop trying to make JavaScript be the language of everything. I have zero interest in JavaScript, I don't believe it's a nice language to work in, and the ecosystem is insane. However, given the way things are going, and the way jobs are trending around me, it seems unavoidable.

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There should always be a job available for you that doesn't require writing JavasScript. However, as a counterpoint, I have been writing ruby/javascript for a while now and the last couple of years I agree the JavaScript has taken over my career. I have 0 complaints, I love modern javascript, the ecosystem, the engines, debug tools and everything between. You don't have to like it but lots of people do and lots of high quality software is being made with JavaScript.

Agreed with your counterpoint. I used to try to avoid JavaScript, nowadays I wish I could use it for everything (C++, C#, and some others are still unavoidable for some of my work). Modern JavaScript is my favorite programming language at this time.

I have zero interest in farming, so I am not a farmer.

I don't think it's likely there will ever be a true "one language to rule them all" in the foreseeable future. Gripe as you may about a tool you don't use, it doesn't sound like you're in a field where knowing JS is mandatory knowledge.

Mobile development. And as I said, it's getting there. JS is being shoehorned in everywhere, and most of the job ads I'm seeing are requesting web tech in mobile developer ads.

Of all the niches one might worry JS will/has claimed an unavoidable status.... native mobile app development doesn't seem like it should be high on the list.

Any language with as critical a mass among devs will probably see tools to help people leverage it across different environments, so JS will likely continue to move into and live in all sorts of niches. But it's quite avoidable on the server, desktop, native mobile, embedded, and it's even becoming partially avoidable on the web.

You're safe enough that you don't have to make everyone else dislike it in order to not have to touch it.

For the native platform I feel that "make JavaScript be the language of everything" was basically forced on people if they wanted something to work on iOS because it's one of the only languages that are allowed on the platform. It is especially useful because you can do minor updates to your app to support bugfixes and faster iteration times.

iOS doesn’t restrict the languages on its platform. Restrictions only come into play if you want to download code from the internet and run it.

You should give it another try. The modern ecosystem / DX environment is really fast and slick. I've known a number of native devs from different languages who now love the lang and what it has to offer. But you've gotta go into it with an open mind :)

Modern JS is not that different from old JS. A couple more keywords and some syntax sugar. No proper integers yet.

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