Dart Sith move first

calendar Oct 13, 2011 · 3 min read · javascript javascript-war nodejs  ·
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So Dart Sith has just launched his first DeathStar, my young JavaScript fellow: a site devoted to the Dart language

Because I am a very old Jedi (1974, before ever the first WtartWars trilogy showdown)  I had to rest a bit before talking about it, so the news is 4-days old I know. I needed to think, reflect and write down: but now I am ready, Read on...

At the present time Node.js Rebels hold good positions: the npm package manager reports over 4300 packages, with a few packages with a lot of dependency on it.

Dart currently score a low packages value, but dark side power is huge.

Dart could translate itself in JavaScript, even if it prefer to kill it. At this url, you can see how a too humble hello word dart code needs a 17000-lines boot library to work.  So the Empire is strong.

Be prepared to the Clone Wars, hold down your CoffeScript positions, and do not leave alone our NodeJS lightsaber.

The Force is strong my young Jedi. Go and teach to Css guys the NodeJS Verb.

After some humor

I like programming languages, but I do not like new programming languages at first sight. They need to persuade me they are useful.

I was a little suspicious on the new JavaScript wave, I also wrote a small article comparing  JavaScript and SmallTalk/Self approach. In that article I was a bit evil on JavaScript, because of my SmallTalkness, I admit.

But in the last two weeks I coded a small NodeJs library, and even if JavaScript deserve a lot of evil stuff, it was easier then expected.

JavaScript core is quite small, but you get all you need:

  1. Functional programming
  2. Full-fledged OOP programming (multiple inheritance, private stuff and so on)
  3. Regular Expression built in
  4. Some basic stuff like random numbers and Date object. I remember Ruby born without a random number generator in the standard library years ago, and it was quite disappointing in my humble opinion
Using JavaScript on top of NodeJS is like having a  perl-like language with a very small core. Basic API is small, and you can learn the javascript-core fast.
The big problem is what Spencer Tipping calls the "egregious disaster":

One would think it is a simple matter to figure out what this is, but it’sapparently quite challenging, and Javascript makes it look nearly impossible.

The this keyword is the worst thing JavaScript has, as you will learn by your own mistakes.
So study Spencer Tipping manual, while flying with your X-Wing to the secret rebel base (more on next days...).