There Is No JavaScript

There Is No JavaScript Noam Kfir Senior Architect, Sela Group http://noam.kfir.cc @NoamKfir

The Bubbling Pool Brendan Eich hacked JavaScript together in ten days

The First Decade Happened • JavaScript was handed to a committee • The browsers went to war • A bunch of languages fought and JavaScript won • The web got big

The Mesozoic Lair John Resig raised JavaScript out of the swamp

The Second Decade Happened • IE6 died a slow painful death • We got standards and frameworks and tools • JavaScript spread to Node.js and MongoDB and Johnny Five!

But First, A Little Exercise! Yes, we’re going to get physical…

Nod Your Head if you use JavaScript

Clap Your Hands if you love JavaScript

Pound Your Feet if you hate JavaScript

Real Programmers Multi-Task Use it. Love it. Hate it. Nod. Clap. Pound. But why?

Let’s Ask Expert! Douglas Crockford, 2001 “JavaScript is the world’s most misunderstood programming language.” The

Most Misunderstood • the name carries misleading implications • typecasting and lisp in c’s clothing • moving target and design errors • amateurs and lousy implementations • bad books and a substandard standard • not really object-oriented?

But Not Anymore • Crockford was right, but things have changed • JavaScript is no longer misunderstood • So the question remains… Why?

Weakly Typed? Yup Except it also has a few strong types

Compiled? Of course not Except that all major JavaScript engines perform JIT (and AOT?) compilation today Or maybe even grunt and gulp and webpack?

Interpreted? Definitely! Actually, interpreted semantics Which change under strict mode And again for ES6

Functional? Yes… high-order functions And no… side effects and immutable semantics Unless ES5: filter, map, reduce, some, defineProperty… Or ES6: consts, arrow functions, destructuring, generators… Or ES7: async, observe…

Inheritance? Absolutely, but it’s weird Prototypes, not classes Except in ES6, where classes are actually prototypes Or the gazillion logical class implementations, which are mostly abstractions for prototypes or glorified mixins

Modules? Nope, not really Unless you use specific design patterns Or hacks, like immediate functions Or a framework that rolls its own, like Angular Or AMD (RequireJS) Or CommonJS (Node.js) Or ES6 modules

Expressive? It really depends on who you ask But before jQuery showed us the way, most programmers did not see it as expressive or use it that way

So JavaScript Is… • Clearly dynamic • Mostly weakly typed • Kind of interpreted yet also compiled • Trending toward but not quite functional • Inherently mixed up about inheritance • Inconsistently modular • Subjectively expressive

WTF?!!!! JavaScript is no longer misunderstood… But it is confusing JavaScript is a buffet!

The Ostrich Ignore JavaScript “We don’t need no stinkin’ JavaScript!” • Go native • Or stick to the server • … And curse Brendan Eich

The Chameleon Hide JavaScript “the assembly language of the web” • JavaScript is ugly • So compile familiar languages “down” • Or invent “prettier” languages to transpile

The Phoenix Reinvent JavaScript “The king is dead. Long live the king.” • Improve JavaScript gradually • Or drastically • Or create a “better” superset

The Kangaroo Skip Over JavaScript “cut out the middleman” • Use an alternative in the browser (like Dart or VBScript) • Or go binary (with WebAssembly)

The Dinosaur Stop Changing JavaScript “Why ruin a good thing?” • It works, leave it alone • The advantage of living in the past is that it’s all documented

Coping Strategies • The Ostrich: ignore JavaScript • The Chameleon: hide JavaScript • The Phoenix: reinvent JavaScript • The Kangaroo: skip over JavaScript • The Dinosaur: stop changing JavaScript

There Seems to Be a Pattern And it’s not the animals

Hint #1 – The Environment In which environments does your JavaScript run? • In the browser? • On the server? • In the database? • On some device? • Everywhere?

Hint #2 – The Ecosystem What language do you use to write your code? • JavaScript all the way! • CoffeeScript? • TypeScript or Flow? • C# or Java? • Anything but JavaScript?

Hint #3 – The Language Which JavaScript do you actually use? • ES3? • ES5? • ES6? • Some other version? • Do you even know?

Hint #4 – The Style Do you have a preferred programming style? • More functional? • More object-oriented? • Whatever the framework prescribes? • Whatever gets the job done? • What are you talking about?

The Problem • JavaScript is ubiquitous, flexible, feature-rich, expressive and popular • But it is also very confusing and suffering from an identity crisis

Converging and Diverging • JavaScript engines are finally converging and are achieving remarkable feature parity, implying eventual consistency across tools, platforms and ecosystems • But the tools, platforms and ecosystems are actually diverging, despite expectations • These are opposing trends

Has JavaScript Peaked? • JavaScript does not seem to be slowing down • But neither is the fragmentation • These are opposing trends

JavaScript Has Evolved • JavaScript’s design has been influenced by many factors and contradictory goals: • open source • competing browsers • a changing web • maturation of the industry • etc. • They have caused fragmentation • But ironically, they have also contributed to its evolution and survival

JavaScript Is Inherently Adaptive • The key to its survival is its adaptability • Its ubiquity and strange typology are evolutionary byproducts • Change is part of its DNA • The language will continue to evolve

Looking Forward • JavaScript is constantly shooting out in new directions • It will hopefully never stabilize • Stabilization will be its death knell • Change makes our lives difficult • In the long run, it’s a necessity

There Is No Spoon • Do not try and bend the spoon. That’s impossible. Instead, only try and realize the truth. • What truth? • There is no spoon. • There is no spoon? • Then you’ll see that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself.

Thank You Noam Kfir Senior Architect, Sela Group http://noam.kfir.cc @NoamKfir

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