Will there ever be another language of the web?

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42 comments, last by lee101 10 years, 8 months ago

Javascript is always referred to as the language of the web. In very much the same way that C/C++ was at one time the language of performant code (i have a feeling it still is). However, I wonder if there's any other language that could do what Javascript could do or is better alternative to Javascript, as far as client-side scripting of web pages goes. In short, if you could replace Javascript with a viable and reasonable alternative what would it be?

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Python, maybe. It's already used server-side for alot of websites.

Python, maybe. It's already used server-side for alot of websites.

I don't see that ever happening. Google is trying with Dart, but that "compiles" to Javascript in the end anyway. Good luck getting Mozilla, Microsoft, Google, Opera, etc to agree on a language to run client side code. The best we'll probably see are projects like Dark, CoffeeScript, TypeScript, etc.

That being said, Javascript can be a great language if used properly!


JavaScript is an interesting language.

The language wasn't that great to begin with and has grown more warts over the years. It was growing during the browser wars and has picked up quite a lot of cruft in order to accommodate quirks of hundreds of browser bugs. The language has been extended many times and there are many things that ought to be simple but require significant effort either directly or by importing libraries that hide those complexity and compatibility issues.

The Internet is always evolving. I'm experienced to realize that neither JavaScript nor HTML will be on the top forever. You asked an existential question, "will there EVER be another language..." and so I'm going to answer yes, barring some cataclysmic end of the world as we know it, there will eventually be something else.

Recall that JavaScript was Netscape's baby and they had to fight hard against the JScript alternative. Even the renaming from "LiveScript" to "JavaScript" was a push for the language's survival, (successfully) attempting to piggyback on Java's successes.

JavaScript has many flaws. It has horrible memory-consuming habits. Even after a decade of optimizations the interpreted language still can bring modern machines to a crawl, and completely halt lesser machines like phones and tablet. Even my tablet (quad core Tegra 3 with 1GB RAM) runs out of memory on relatively benign jquery scripts. It is interpreted and still has heavy reliance on quirks of the browser that is interpreting it. Attempting to build anything with it, such as complex user interfaces, is a full time job for many people but it needn't be.

Most people don't know enough to care that the reason "the Internet is slow" is in part because of the massive body of JavaScript churning in the background.

Google introduced Dart which in some ways competes with JavaScript, even though it can be compiled to JavaScript. The ability to be run directly (and also to have a smaller memory footprint) rather than through a browser's interpreter is a big benefit.

Several current languages COULD do it. But right now there is little commercial incentive to do it. The language with all its flaws is currently standardized (as ECMAScript) and it is well supported.

JavaScript has many flaws. It has horrible memory-consuming habits. Even after a decade of optimizations the interpreted language still can bring modern machines to a crawl, and completely halt lesser machines like phones and tablet. Even my tablet (quad core Tegra 3 with 1GB RAM) runs out of memory on relatively benign jquery scripts. It is interpreted and still has heavy reliance on quirks of the browser that is interpreting it. Attempting to build anything with it, such as complex user interfaces, is a full time job for many people but it needn't be.

Most people don't know enough to care that the reason "the Internet is slow" is in part because of the massive body of JavaScript churning in the background.

Are we talking about JavaScript here or JavaScript developers? Like any language, it's horribly abused by the majority of people writing it. This is made worse by many people thinking it's not a real programming language which cause them to be much more careless with it than they would if they were writing something in C, C#, Java, etc.

I remember when Action Script use to be king of the web.

In my own opinion, AS is a more dynamic language than JS, however the question is "what is the next big thing? " .

I really don't know. Dart is the only major alternative "language" out there, with nothing else being offered for the client side.

(( technically Java is client side, however no one used that anymore in web design ))

I cannot remember the books I've read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

JavaScript has many flaws. It has horrible memory-consuming habits. Even after a decade of optimizations the interpreted language still can bring modern machines to a crawl, and completely halt lesser machines like phones and tablet.

It is java script specyfic or this is related in equal to more such high level scripting languages with implicit garbage colection? if for example python would be used in browsers would it be better? (I know javascript very little, by lookin on some game sources written in it and these sources looked quite nice, much more condensed than c yet highly readable, and dynamic of the game was also quite high, I was surprised with that)

w3c is completely vested in not allowing competing development technologies on the web.

Imagine if all operating systems only came bundled with the ability to run 1 language?

its total anti-competitive.

JavaScript is a waste of time and money, it easily takes 10x longer to make stuff using JavaScript / html than the next alternative. There used to interesting websites built with advancing technologies, every year they got more bells and whistles, now there are none. People hi fived themselves when they can run quake2 in a browser in javascript a few years ago. Congratz your tech runs like its 15 years old.

all plugins should work in all browsers as a standard.

Am I wrong or is compiling Dart to JavaScript just a temporary solution? I thought they will try to really establish it once Browsers implement a certain planned abstraction standard that will allow other scripting languages besides JavaScript to run natively.

Does anybody think browsers might not survive? That operating systems and apps will replace them and that the internet will get more of a structure somehow?

I think in the not so distant future programs will have to be written for ridiculous amounts of CPUs ... technologies like OpenCL will probably play a role then.

IMO a seamless online experience makes sense. The whole browser technology still thinks in pages.

I personally am hoping that there will be a disruptive new technology and cumbersome web development for several different browsers will be obsolete at some point.

Then again, I also hope we will design software soon, rather than program it (abstract development without worrying about the programming / scripting languages). happy.png

Given enough eyeballs, all mysteries are shallow.

MeAndVR

@ DareDeveloper

Java and Flash use to promise that, however almost no one likes to program web sites around those platforms any more, due to the fact they are "slow to develop".

Companies want their web sites made as quickly as possible - "as long as it works, who cares if it's efficient" is their motto wacko.png

I cannot remember the books I've read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

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