JavaScript exceeded everyone

Hi, Habr! I present to your attention the translation of the article JavaScript Has Already Won by Jonny Asmar.

This post is not that JS is the best of all programming languages, no. It will be only about the areas that he has covered, and about how many opportunities he gave developers to improve their product.

For a long time in the world of programming is a struggle. From the very inception of the computer, programmers have been looking for an ideal programming language. One by one, new languages ​​were created to adapt them to specific goals. And with these new languages, a new era of technology has appeared, a million libraries have appeared and a lot of information is freely available, and with all this new restrictions have inevitably appeared. For a long time Java applets programming (applications) it can be noticed that various languages ​​suddenly appeared and disappeared just as unexpectedly, besides, their usefulness quickly faded away.
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The world is moving in a new direction ...

And so, this once beautiful new language has now become absolutely useless, like its developers, and another completely new excellent programming language is already looming in its stead.

However, JavaScript has been around for almost a decade and is not going anywhere. So, it would be appropriate to ask such a question: “In what direction is it moving?” However, this post is not entirely about “JavaScript”. Also, it does not apply to the many languages ​​that were before him. And it doesn’t say how wonderful JavaScript is.

This post is about the Node software platform.

And these things really need to be distinguished. Because Node is something else. This is not just a language. This is an ecosystem.

And this is what will be discussed.

Although ... not really. There will not be described a million reasons why this ecosystem is the most innovative intermediary in the field of interaction with the open source that the world has ever seen. At the moment, I will simply illustrate how this platform has already defeated the century-long war for perfect language, having passed several key programming territories of the modern era:

The World Wide Web

React, Angular and Vue

React, Angular and Vue are the most important interface systems in existence today. Together, Facebook, Google and the FOSS community have developed intelligently effective tools for developing interactive user interfaces.
As a result, almost everything you do on the Internet today is served by a very interactive, aesthetically pleasing and easy-to-use interface. And all this was only possible thanks to the Node ecosystem.

There is no doubt that JavaScript has dominated web development for eternity, but React, Angular and Vue take it all to another level.
This is the user interface period.

A period when interface developers no longer shy away from creating complex one-page web applications and full-featured software sets.
The place where you were once a web developer, now you are a software developer.

And so ... Node surpassed the World Wide Web.

Telephones

React native
(framework for developing cross-platform applications for iOS and Android)

Here we will talk not only about the success of the platform in the field of mobile phones, but also to understand one important point:

Node is cross-platform, that is, it can work on more than one hardware platform or operating system. And this means not only - “Oh, great, it works on my phone!”. And not even that - “Wow, my phone, tablet, laptop and TV can support YouTube!”.

React Native is just one example of a structure developed in the Node ecosystem that bridges the gap between developing interfaces and developing mobile applications in a form that previously did not exist in other infrastructures.

The biggest disadvantage in the development of applications for the phone was in the absence of their connection to the Internet. However, using React Native and the Node ecosystem, a developer can create a single application that is supported by the browser, iOS, and Android. No other language offers such universality.

And so ... Node has surpassed mobile phones.

Desktop

Electron

Of course, not everything we do happens on the Internet. Desktop applications also have a huge impact on how we interact. But why should we work on different PCs in different ways, when the network can now serve full-featured applications on all operating systems?

In fact, it was a matter of time before JavaScript caught up with desktop performance. That's how Electron appeared.

Of course, there are even more efficient languages ​​to use when programming, but for most applications that we use today, JavaScript is more than enough.

Thanks to Cheng Zhao & Github, a structure was created that changes the look and feel of desktop computers. Electron not only added the development of desktop applications to the already growing repertoire of web developers, but also made it so that it is fully compatible with other operating systems.

Although Windows is still the most common operating system today, Macs have been growing for 15 years now, and more and more developers are switching to Linux every day. And now even small toys, such as the Raspberry Pi, will increasingly appear on Linux, and not just those with Windows or Mac. Now you can imagine why cross-OS development is such a huge advantage ... and this is just the beginning.

Now our internet, mobile phone and desktop are fully supported by the Node ecosystem. A single set of tools that can create the same interface in all these places.

And so ... Node surpassed Desktop.

Games

Unity 3d

I left it at last, because it’s not exactly “Node”, it’s still more related to JavaScript, and let's talk about it in a little more detail:
The success of JavaScript is not that it is superior to other languages. Its success is a direct result of how it is adapted for use almost everywhere.
JavaScript developers are not purists.

We like our language as it is (no); version-fragmented, transpiler-dependent, cross-platform, constantly evolving and aspiring to where no language has ever reached.

Like the development of games!

When Unity 3D first introduced its JavaScript-based “UnityScript” as a game development tool, it became clear that JavaScript would now create really cool things. This was one of the first major forays into non-web development, and it was a clear sign that something was going to happen.

Now it became clear that JavaScript can do much more than just open the menu, as well as change the font size on the page. He can give more than just let you like this post. It can handle exciting, cross-platform gaming events. And the very same developers who were once limited - Chrome, Firefox and Internet Exploder, suddenly became game developers.
And although Unity recently announced that they would refuse to support UnityScript, I would still say:

And so ... JavaScript exceeded the game.
Well maybe not. But this is not the last round, right?

I don’t know when it will end, but Node removes one barrier after another and paves the way for the software development world, where one language controls all the others. Naturally, JavaScript is not the best language for everything. But the strength of JavaScript is that it is universal, and it is the most powerful developed ecosystem available today.