[Web-SIG] JavaScript libraries

[Carlos Ribeiro]

Hi guys,


Javascript seems to be everyone's little dirty secret. Everyone uses,
most people don't like it. Some (like me) dislike it for no other
reason than being another language that I have to use. Some others
dislike it for being named Javasomething (which is indeed something
very strange). Yet others dislike it because it's a hell of a language
to work with, mainly because it breaks the usual development cycle...
it's hard to debug, trace, or otherwise analyze because it runs inside
the browser. Most of the times, Javascript can't stand on its own
legs; it requires other 'real' languages, such as Python or Java (or
even PHP!) for something to be done. To top it all, there's the DOM,
incompatibilities, you name it.

Once you understand that - Javascript may be tolerated, but (almost)
never loved - it's easy to understand why there are so little movement
in the OS camp involving Javascript libraries. I mean, the amount of
quality & well documented JS libraries is ridiculous if compared to
the relative importance of the language for the industry. The lack of
real communities of developers is also telling.

For all the reasons above, I can't see it changing anytime soon.
Perhaps if we had better support in some browser -- and Firefox is the
perfect candidate here -- to improve the development experience. So
far, it's been a long trip into a U2-class sub with the lights turned
off.

-- 
Carlos Ribeiro
Consultoria em Projetos
blog: http://rascunhosrotos.blogspot.com
blog: http://pythonnotes.blogspot.com
mail: carribeiro at gmail.com
mail: carribeiro at yahoo.com