The Future of JavaScript: World’s Favorite or Most Hated?

JavaScript is a programming language that allows you to create interactive web pages. It’s ease of use, simplicity and rich interfaces allows developers to create dynamic sites that engage users. JavaScript is used everywhere on the web and it’s one of the most used web development tools. The complexity of JavaScript’s abilities and beginner friendly usage is what sets it apart from anything else.  

Popularity 

Some might say JavaScript is so popular because it’s made for everyone. It’s great for beginners, experts and anyone in between. It’s a truly flexible programming language that allows you to advance further within it.  Modern frameworks like Angular and React, allow increased functionality which ignites its staying power within the software developing community. JavaScript is a universal language- It can run any and everywhere. The limitless quality of it gives JavaScript its edge and it’s time in existence and use, gives it its credibility. JavaScript has been around for over 25 years and has an abundant fanbase and set of users. If you are in software development and you know how to use JavaScript you will be successful because it is everywhere. You can’t escape it in modern web development. It’s too ubiquitous to not know your way around it. It’s likely here to stay and seems to always be adapting to the times while establishing an open standard language.  

JavaScript is one of the most powerful languages due to its performance and popularity. The advantages of JavaScript are abundant and continue to grow with new advancements.  

Advantages  

Some advantages of JavaScript include:  

• Speed. It is extremely fast. It doesn’t get slowed down with a backend because it typically runs within your client’s browser.  
• Beginner Friendly. It’s easy to use, with easy to learn language.  
• Rich Frameworks. It gives you a lot of creative access. 
• Client Sided. The demand for servers is less. You could use Node.js on the server, but why? 

• Extended Functionality.  
• Platform Independent.  
• Every major browser supports it.  
• Easy to debug.  
  
  

With all the benefits of JavaScript, it does have some disadvantages. With all technology comes some type of flaw or limitation. It’s up to the developer whether these disadvantages are enough to not use this particular language. JavaScript can be a great asset to any developer's process but nothing is perfect.

Disadvantages  

Some disadvantages of JavaScript include:  

• Browser support. Some browsers interpret JavaScript differently.  
• JavaScript code is visible. Even with minification or obfuscation someone can reverse engineer your app with enough time. 
• Your website's images and page source could be saved- You can have your information easily taken by those who know how. And due to its popularity, many people know how. 
• Loose typing. Typescript helps this with type checking at compilation, but it’s only a convenience. 
• No networking capabilities because there is no support.  
• Security (CORS) around access to Web API Services that are on a different domain. This can be a hassle to get configured properly. 
• No protection. JavaScript can be disabled.  
  
  

 With all of the disadvantages that JavaScript has, it still continues to be a household name for developers around the world.  

According to the Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2020, JavaScript was the most commonly used programming language with 69.7% of professional developers using it. For eight years, JavaScript has been voted most commonly used programming language by professional and non-professional developers. “JavaScript is used as a client-side programming language by 97.2% of all the websites.” And with over 1 billion websites in the world, in which the number of websites is growing per second, that’s impressive. This goes to show that it continues to be a developer favorite even with all of the hate and intolerance you might see online. 

Is JavaScript the best programming language on the market today? That's up to interpretation. What the developer likes and dislikes is the most important factor. JavaScript is an industry favorite for some and has many loyal users but there is a lot of new competition on the market. JavaScript has made an impact in the developing world and looks to be staying. There seems to be a love hate relationship with JavaScript but it continues to update and have dynamic, modern frameworks and client sided applications that keep users wanting to use the text based programming language. Not to mention it’s literally everywhere on the web- It’s support is truly unparalleled.  

Is JavaScript the proper way to do web development?