[arch-general] why I'd rather use Python over Javascript for web development

[C Anthony Risinger]

On Tue, Dec 14, 2010 at 1:23 PM, Kaiting Chen <kaitocracy at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 14, 2010 at 2:14 PM, C Anthony Risinger <anthony at extof.me>wrote:
>
>> the benefit to the pyjs approach is 100% client side operation, so it
>> can run without online access.  additionally, the python-DOM version
>> (or the pyjs version if proxying thru a local daemon) could
>> potentially direct install from the website, leading to "install now"
>> functionality.  lastly, python means you could use the same lang to
>> write the front end and the backend, and communicate using JSON
>> messages.
>>
>> as a professional web applications developer by day, i can vouch that
>> writing webapps requires knowledge of about 4 different haphazardly
>> implemented "standards", requiring far to much painfully acquired
>> knowledge.  by using a library like pyjamas, you allow anyone with
>> python experience to write incredibly functional plugins/modules, and
>> share maintenance load.  django is a great platform, but after i
>> discovered pyjamas about 1yr ago, i haven't looked back, and am
>> convinced that compiler technology is the only sane way to develop
>> complex and maintainable web-based applications.
>
> Out of curiosity why is everyone so again just writing Javascript? Everyone
> seems to want to write in some other language and then compile to Javascript
> these days. --Kaiting.

well for me at least, it not 100% related to javascript itself; JS is
an incredibly powerful language that will let you hang yourself again
and again :-)

primarily, it's:

) JS is completely unstructured.  powerful, but causes developers to
implement many things that would be a part of the core syntax in other
langs
) the ^^^^ causes many different impls of the same, and new devs to
misuse the really great things about JS, like first-class closures.
leads to absolutely obtuse and horrendous looking libraries, with
weird semantics for its usage, like passing objects to emulate named
arguments, and a hundred other more prudent examples.
) umpteen number of naunces between browsers, browser versions, and
half-eaten standards.

maddening.  combined with [some] similar problems with both HTML and
CSS, and it's enough to drive one ape-sh*t.

soooo.... i use a python abstraction to give me my favorite language
and all it's goodies while also shielding me from platform variation,
along with widget libraries to support the
build-once-deploy-everywhere thinking.

yes, JS has some decent libraries, and widget sets (don't say extjs).
but pyjamas can be ran as a 100% python desktop app too.

so ultimately, compiler tech gives me a 100% cross-desktop
cross-platform cross-browser cross-version solution... try it out,
it's like finding a nude beach after walking 100km thru a blizzard :-)

C Anthony