

JavaScript spread to the edges and became permanent in the process - krmmalik
http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/06/javascript-edges-permanent-james-duncan.html

======
olalonde

        The big change started when Google launched Maps.
    

Google Maps definitely deserves the credit on this.

~~~
carussell
I don't understand why everyone always points to Google Maps. Gmail was
launched a full ten months before Google Maps. Granted, it was an invite-only
beta, but the participants in this conversation would have been the ones with
access.

------
tete
Who cares about this stuff, when JavaScript/ECMAScript hasn't even a sane
split function. And when will ECMAScript receive for each?

Why hype new stuff when the foundation isn't nice by now?

The only real reason for JavaScript being so popular is that web developers
have to learn it.

However, I do admit JavaScript has a lot of potential. Just start on the
bottom or you'll at some point have to break everything or live with annoying
stuff.

I think OO is fine. If you want more there is Joose:
<http://code.google.com/p/joose-js/> ... and other libraries. That way you
don't have to care about making everyone happy.

Deliver a good foundation and the community will take care about the rest.

~~~
peteretep
Javascript is also popular because it's FUN and FAST. I'm working on a project
where I've been doing parsing of HTML in Perl and I'm ripping the guts out to
do in an embedded V8 engine - has the added bonus that I'll also be able to
deploy the guts to a browser.

Getting up close and personal with Javascript changed how I programmed in
other languages. Passing anonymous functions around, abusing map and grep
functions (which are easily enough hacked in), and the knowledge that many
people will be able to read and understand and contribute to your code...

~~~
tete
Oh and Node.js!

I'm also coming from Perl and what I always liked is the huge variety of
modules on CPAN. JSAN has been around for a while, but only recently both
Node.js (npm) and JSAN had a nice growth.

~~~
peteretep
I used to run a JSAN mirror back in the day - I had thought it was largely
defunct :-/

As a Perl programmer for ~ 14 years, CPAN is what keeps you coming back to
Perl over and over and over and over again...

