Summary
JavaScript was created in less time than it takes to home-brew a jar of kombucha. The language is used in both front- and backend development for a whole host of mobile platforms and apps.
Software engineer Gary Bernhardt gave a talk titled “Wat’s” four-minute talk on JavaScript. The “wat” talk is a blooper reel of JavaScript’S quirks and unpredictable behaviors, he says.
To dwell on JavaScript’s original shortcomings is to overlook the fact that any piece of software is amenable to revision and improvement. The performance of a language depends not only on the language itself but also on the caliber of its run-time environment.
The development of the language is steered by the rather unremarkably named Technical Committee 39 under a Geneva-based standards organization. While some languages are governed by a conclave of experts, the process for JavaScript provides more visibility. Proposals and meeting notes are publicly available on GitHub.
According to the annual Stack Overflow Developer Survey, 2023 marked the 11th consecutive year that JavaScript has been the most commonly used language.
