Credit: Pixabay ( ) https://pixabay.com/en/node-js-logo-nodejs-javascript-736399/ I started off in my career fairly close to the hardware. I had learned C and Objective-C to work on the iOS platform. I had a lot of control over the software and I had to learn to manage memory and spend hours or days fixing an issue that was caused by my own negligence and oversight (this was pre- ). My career grew with a bias towards iOS and I started learning Java (and more recently Kotlin) to branch to Android. ARC With Android development, memory management was less of an issue due to a forgiving garbage collector. However, I still had a lot of control over the application lifecycle and I was forced to learn the differences between the two major mobile platforms and from interface to functionality that’s a lot to take in. I stayed in my comfortable bubble whilst scoffing at developers — mocking the terrible performance of web apps. I refused to touch JavaScript for a long time and would always reluctantly attempt a more familiar taste such as TypeScript. It’s still JavaScript but at least I didn’t have to type it. I liked my variables and constants to have an explicit type. Years of memory management had me on edge. JavaScript If you own a car, the chances are that you don’t get along with cyclists sharing the road. There is psychology behind this and it’s commonly known as the . It took me a long time to realise that the reason I didn’t like JavaScript developers was because of this psychology. I had put years of effort and pain into learning memory management and application lifecycles. I thought to myself “ ”. free-rider problem JavaScript developers get to share my title without paying the price of memory management or understanding of software lifecycles?! Credit: News Corp Australia As I grew and became less content in my career, I started to have my own ideas. My idea required a web application with a few basic features like access-control and authentication. It needed a few endpoints and resources. I did some research and came across . I thought I might as well give it a shot since it looked fairly easy to setup and was well supported. It took me one evening to get this web application up and running. . This is the stack that I threw together. NodeJS One evening NodeJS (Server) mLab (Mongo DB) PugJS (Template Language) Several calls npm install --save xxx A few hours hacking around and I had a functional web application with a functional authentication system and access control. I didn’t care about Redis, Docker, K8s or any of the good stuff yet. My MVP was built. I could test my product. I had a sandbox database with no backups, I had an unscalable product hosted on Digital Ocean. However, I tested this product with real users and realised it wasn’t as magical as I dreamed. Oh well, nothing wasted, just learned. I started learning more about JavaScript and the unfamiliar package economy it had. Developing on iOS and Android, you are expected to use a few common dependencies like and . I expected a similar level of dependencies in JavaScript. I was wrong. I soon realised why it was called the world wide web. It was literally a huge web of dependencies. This was a scary experience for me. Alamofire Retrofit so Credit: Pixabay ( ) https://pixabay.com/en/spider-silk-bokeh-rain-arachnid-1287407/ However, after learning a few rules such as using a with polyfills, the most common dependencies and the general ecosystem — I started to get much more comfortable. I was able to create an MVP of any product in a couple of days. That’s an impressive turn-around and it’s all thanks to NodeJS. transformer Once an MVP worked out, it was time to invest time elsewhere. I started to branch out and care about scaling for my specific needs. . NodeJS is great for some uses but like any other language, it’s not to be used just because you’re familiar with it. NodeJS is not a silver bullet As for the language itself, I used to be disgusted with JavaScript. The core reason for this is that I used to use ActionScript 3.0 a while back. Both JS and AS3 were ECMAScript so why was AS3 so much nicer than JavaScript? Compatibility. It took me a while to realise how important browser compatibility was for JS. Once Babel started to be adopted, JavaScript started changing fast. It made some mega improvements. I actually enjoy writing JavaScript now whilst being assured that legacy code is being created under the hood. This post is primarily targeted at people who scoff at JavaScript. I still don’t like the idea of “native” JS applications. However, I understand just how much flexibility this gives to desktop/mobile apps and it’d be hypocritical of me to be sat here on VSCode whilst slating them. I do like the idea of hybrid applications that have some core components written in a low-level language which is an approach a lot of intensive desktop web-apps are doing. If you see a developer that hates JavaScript, it’s probably because they perceive you as a cyclist taking over a space they believe they’re entitled to. If you liked this article, please clap and follow me to read my future content.

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I used to hate JavaScript. Now I like it.

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I used to hate JavaScript. Now I like it.

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Joey Clover

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