What follows is meant to be descriptive rather arguing "my camp is right".
> JavaScript's redeeming quality is that it is ubiquitous due to being used by browsers.
JavaScript has other properties that make it very adept at a wide range of web app usecases. Languages exist not in isolation, but have a dynamic environment w.r.t. domains they excel in, tooling, mindshare, programming in the small and the large, comlexity, etc.
> I don't think anybody credibly claims it to be a language we would want to use if we were to redesign web programming from scratch today
Dart has tried.
Many languages transpile to JavaScript (and have for a long time).
Yet, JavaScript and TypeScript are some of the most popular languages on the planet.
If the web is still around in 20 years, it will be interesting to see whether another language has taken center stage. I'm not quite holding my breath, if only because even with transpilation being around for many many years, no other language has overtaken. I have a hard time seeing WASM changing that outcome in a meaningful way.
> JavaScript's redeeming quality is that it is ubiquitous due to being used by browsers.
JavaScript has other properties that make it very adept at a wide range of web app usecases. Languages exist not in isolation, but have a dynamic environment w.r.t. domains they excel in, tooling, mindshare, programming in the small and the large, comlexity, etc.
> I don't think anybody credibly claims it to be a language we would want to use if we were to redesign web programming from scratch today
Dart has tried. Many languages transpile to JavaScript (and have for a long time).
Yet, JavaScript and TypeScript are some of the most popular languages on the planet.
If the web is still around in 20 years, it will be interesting to see whether another language has taken center stage. I'm not quite holding my breath, if only because even with transpilation being around for many many years, no other language has overtaken. I have a hard time seeing WASM changing that outcome in a meaningful way.