Why is JavaScript so popular? | Jim Keller and Lex Fridman

Lex Fridman Podcast full episode: • Jim Keller: The Future...
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Jim Keller is a legendary microprocessor engineer, previously at AMD, Apple, Tesla, Intel, and now Tenstorrent.
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[@scotttang6229]

I think frontend development is another big catalyst for JS being so widely used now. What we can do with the browser these days was impossible even 5 years ago. I hardly use native apps anymore. Most apps are browser based these days and increasingly so. Another catalyst is that the JS community is not afraid to innovate and adopt the latest techs. Good example is GraphQL. I believe that most early adoptions were implemented in JS. The Apollo library for the client and server is still mostly written in JS and serves as the gold standard for graphQL implementation. ES6 and beyond have also made JS a joy to use. What’s not to like?

[@Learningthroughteaching]

What browser apps are you using ?

[@alivepenmods]

We definitely have had different experiences. Any pwa I used I hated. Also the web pages on my laptop have never been so slow and buggy. To me, JS made the web beautiful and terrible to use.

[@brigadut]

JavaScript is popular now not because for the frontend development but you can use it on the server side thanks to nodeJs

[@luigi9064]

Web development is the most popular subset of Software development atm. If you're gonna learn web dev ,then you need to learn javascript. That's the simple reason it's so popular. No need to complicate things

[@videovoila6616]

Why javascript is/became the most popular for web dev?

[@luigi9064]

@@videovoila6616 It’s basically the only relevant client side programming language.

[@luigi9064]

@@videovoila6616 so if you’re gonna build even basic static websites, you’ll probably add some JavaScript

[@videovoila6616]

@@luigi9064 why became the only relevant client side programming language ?....(the answer seams like, it is popular because it is popular.)

[@luigi9064]

@@videovoila6616 you still don’t get it. Java, C, c++ and so on were never used as a client side programming language. That’s just not what they’re meant for. Nobody is asking why JavaScript more popular than VBscript or other client side programming languages. They’re asking why JavaScript is the most popular programming language in the world and my original comment was stating the reason.

[@abeidiot]

Honestly I think it's the performance. The event based model just made reactive backend programming a natural fit. It took years for other industry standard frameworks like spring to mature and provide the same thing

[@illwill2001]

Love this channel Lex!

[@Megalomaniakaal]

Because it was the one that ran in web browsers and was _realllllllllly easy_ to get started with and to learn. But also the right time. But then also got picked up as the basis for EMCA Script standard basis and last but not least, rather most important of all, it became basis for ActionScript in flash.

[@jbheselyoutubization]

I have written code with z80 Assember, Lisp, Pascal, C and Python and someway I had to use javascript, because of the browser. But I like it most of all, allthough I acutally write coffeescript, which takes away a lot of syntax noise. functions as first class objects is one of my favorits and the json. It took my some time to get the async and sometimes I fall back in synchron style, where async would apply better. This led me to change to javascript in the backend too.

[@ironcharlie2890]

Tell me more. Ever use assembly language?

[@jbheselyoutubization]

@@ironcharlie2890 yes, as I wrote. I did quite a bit on z80. There was a competition between us peers with 6502 and z80. Lateron I used 8086 for a short time, but soon, the higher languages took over.

[@cheesesoup2894]

Javascript just wants to work, thats why.

[@arichayo4122]

React native is so awesome, but it wouldn't be possible without rich!

[@spoddie]

because in the early days of the Internet you would open a web page and your computer would stop while started a Java Machine, you waited patiently to discover it was just so they could animate a spinning world.

[@alexforzani10]

My man

[@freddiejackson6958]

Accessibility

[@knofi7052]

It's always about the right tool at the right time. Unfortunately, only time is telling! :)

[@ironcharlie2890]

We tell the time. It doesn't tell us.

[@stormysurge9083]

It's 10:14am

[@sonnybrown4758]

Php crappy? I think it’s a great language.

[@minocs]

I like PHP too!

[@serhendiefendi]

The aswer is what happened to webassembly project it was promise every programming language can behaviour like JavaScript but for now until that time it's special and unique may in the near future no need to it

[@henrymach]

Because it's supported by all browsers.

[@serhendiefendi]

Isn't so obvious? So clear JS doesn't similar any other languages because there is no alternative for browser scripting and internet start with browser its a Touchstone

Merhaba :) Sizce akıllı telefon uygulamaları web uygulamaların sonunu getirebilir mi? Malum herkes şimdi akıllı telenuyla yatıp kalkıyor

[@dixztube]

@ those are probably mostly written with js libraries I’d assume but not sure

[@pietrosavastano9940]

PHP laravel is the future and the past

[@alivepenmods]

It won't. Ever since Nikita popov left PHP-core. The guy basically made 80% of the PHP advancements in the last 15 years. It's not about finding talented C developers. It's about finding someone who understands the wrecked and undocumented Zend internals. Even Facebook found it easier to rewrite the whole compiler and VM than contributing to php-core. I've been a PHP dev for a long time, and I'm starting to move away.

[@jorge1869]

@@alivepenmods dude🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@undefinedvariable8085]

Why is JavaScript so popular? It's the most accessible.

[@FirstLast-gk6lg]

*sad JavaScript noises*

[@ygjt76v0-----]

Because java name make popular?

[@HavokR505]

X86 is arguably the worst architecture around. Yes. yes it is. thats why its so good.

[@rossthemusicandguitarteacher]

Javascript isn't great but it sure has the ecosystem to thrive... I prefer not to use it if possible.

[@MrAfusensi]

I'd say it's great. Especially these days.

[@rossthemusicandguitarteacher]

@@MrAfusensi I just prefer compiled/strongly typed languages.

[@stankozubenko8520]

@@rossthemusicandguitarteacher I completely agree. I just wasted so much time trying to set up a core backend, finally surrendering to NodeJS because everything is geared towards it on there lol

[@rossthemusicandguitarteacher]

@@stankozubenko8520 Check out the .Net solutions for backend, they are pretty awesome.

[@MrAfusensi]

@@rossthemusicandguitarteacher me too, that's why use typescript daily. Tbh I rarely use vanilla js, and am mostly doing back end (nodejs) these days