Is JS as universal platform an idea whose time has come, or whose time has passed?
Personally, being an admittedly big fan of C, I still love working with JavaScript — and I love working with TypeScript on top of that even more.
It's not the end of the world, though. It's one solution to a selection of problems. Just the same, there are other solutions, and yet other problems that JavaScript can't solve.
I don't really think it's a question of "peak JavaScript" yet. I think the question is irrelevant, really.
On another note entirely, I've toyed with Go, but I don't care about it. I don't find the learning or development curve any quicker than C for me. C's very pragmatic (admittedly, potentially to a fault)— Go seems to further obfuscate things. I welcome attempts at conversion, however— it's possible I'm missing something there.
Rust seems to introduce a novel approach that I can appreciate, but I haven't done a deep dive. I haven't properly invested in Web Assembly, either, but that's in part due to the fact that I haven't identified an imminent need to do so. Sometime soon, probably.
Have the days of hand-writing raw JS peaked? More than likely. Between TypeScript and other transcompilers, and the impending threat of WebAssembly being able to consume other languages and output browser executable code.
A project like Microsoft's Blazor[0] might ultimately fail, but that type of compiled from language to WebAssembly likely is the future. But if you define WebAssembly as "JavaScript" then I guess we haven't hit peak JS.
#1 Are you asking because you're deciding if you should invest time it from a general "keeping up with technology perspective" ?
or..
#2 Do you have a specific project in mind, and are worried that other technologies may have eclipsed js, and therefore if you invest in js you would be wasting time and money?
or..
#3 Do you want to impress someone, and want to do it in a tech that will garner a certain wow factor.
If #1, I don't have a clear and concise answer to this -- its effectively FOMO. I've had this urge in the past; I think what's embedded in the original question is you don't want to use js becuase you already have a perception that it's peaked. So just pick something else like Webassembly, Rust, Go or another framework de-jour and enjoy the exercise. Just try to keep the enjoyment level above the FOMO level :)
If #2, I would say js has not peaked ..just like many languages could meet the needs of a specific project. Look at your tools, abilities, team composition (if you have one) and decide on a set of tools that will allow you to meet your project objectives in a short amount of time (a la lean methods)
If #3, pick something exotic to your audience ..and then be able to describe the ups/downs in great detail after you wow them ..or fail to wow them with a big catastrophic fail ..either way, focus on the pyrotechnic show :)
PS. there is no universal platform and NEVER will be :) :) :)
(edit typos/formatting)
I doubt that JavaScript on the web client is going anywhere. While wasm is interesting, it's still not really ready for prime time. These days if you're a frontend web engineer, you're forced to use JavaScript or a transpiles-to-JavaScript language.
The interest in JavaScript as a mobile runtime is still exploding. Searches for React Native have only been increasing over the years and shows no signs of slowing down. Compare this to iOS swift, which is trending down in popularity.
If you're wondering whether the JavaScript ecosystem is still a useful one to learn, I wholeheartedly believe it's not going anywhere for the foreseeable future.
Of course there's some practical differences between writing TS and JS, in terms of stuff like tool support, but it's really the same language. Any architecture or algorithm you'd design in either would turn out the same. Not similar, the same.
But, on a historical note, 2018 will probably go down as the year of “peak WordPress”.
All “patch” releases, nothing else: https://wordpress.org/news/category/releases/