Hack Isn't PHP

I agree that any language is relatively sane when sticking to the good parts, and even that is a stretch with JavaScript.

The code sharing benefits are very real, while backend developers may need to learn a bit about the dom whereas frontend developers may need to learn a bit about sockets / file handles whatever, having a shared language (and libraries) is immensely powerful.

I work on a clone of CouchDB in JavaScript, it also works as an (immature) fully functional server side clone running 90% shared code.

The most used libraries in npm are shared between client and server, it has very real benefits

Fair enough. I actually don't use node, or js on the server. :-)

I still kind of like the idea though, of having only one source for (say) object definition, which is shared somehow between the client and server code. Being able to use the same unit tests to check my client side models as server side ones.

Maybe you could do it the other way around though - having your objects from your SQL Schema (or ORM, or whatever) generate the basic JS models... I dunno.

I totally agree that you need multiple languages, and that knowing multiple languages is incredibly valuable - and a lot of fun. I wrote a basic scheme in python for fun, and have a haskell textbook on my desk in front of me right now :-) - But I also feel that there should be some way that by using one language for all of your application logic (client and server side), there could be a benefit.

Sure, DOM manipulation is it's own weird thing - as is database querying, and document styling,- but the application logic that is done clientside and server side is very similar, I find.

well, malbolge, for one. :-)

I may just be biased against PHP.

Facebook, at least, believe that it does have enough good parts to make it worth while, so my opinion is just that. My opinion.

I feel that JS has the following good points:

closures, anonymous functions & enough of the 'lisp-zen-nature' to be quite powerful. The prototypal inheritance is a bit weird, at first, and a little ugly on its own, but actually is quite powerful.

It's simple enough that any non-js programmer can pick it up pretty quickly.

PHP has all the usual well known issues, but has the following problems that JS doesn't:

a vast vast vast multi-level standard library, with many different ways of doing things (mysql, mysqli, pdo...) all of which are built in (or not, you can't tell until run-time). the various different php.ini settings which actually change how the language works (eg. 3 different 'escape to HTML' tags). although functions are 'considered bad practice' to use, there isn't a single source of truth on how to write it well. the documentation is a sea of misunderstanding and examples of how to abuse functions and do things which aren't non-obvious (the comments on each page). JS objects generally have methods attached for doing the various operations on them. php has a bit of that, but mostly external functions that you pass arrays or whatever to. That can be just a stylistic thing (being more 'c' like) but it also means you end up having to know - just to use the language at a basic level - that it's array_splice($a), sort($a), array_rand($a), strpos & string_replace, etc.

JS is really quite a small language. You can read crockford's, 'the good parts' in a day, including all the bits to avoid. PHP is a very big language. To write a 'the good parts' of it would require a much longer book, as you can't use the recommended parts without understanding pretty much of the whole language.

ooh, ooh! Unlambda!

  ```s``s``sii`ki
    `k.*``s``s`ks
   ``s`k`s`ks``s``s`ks``s`k`s`kr``s`k`sikk
    `k``s`ksk

Brainfuck?

> I don thinkt that makes any sense. Should we also use js to implement the OS for the server?

We don't normally develop the OS ourselves, so what language it was written in is irrelevant. Same goes for runtimes, libraries, etc. If we're not responsible for maintaining it, it should not matter what language it was written in. Naturally, the "same language on client and server" argument can only apply to code we develop and maintain.

AFAIK in Haskell it's not a throwaway variable, a pattern with _ will not create a binding at all. I don't think Python does this, maybe Go.

And Ruby, and Rust. It's close to universal.

And Clojure.

I vote yes.

Job Control Language - Old timers love this. The rigidity of it fits the mainframe philosophy.

I think it's not "sex change Urgh weird and gross" but "sex change haha wow unpexpected".

A bit like PenIsland - or PenisLand. They get a lot of traffic from it.

I agree it is problematic if people are uncomfortable with the idea of gender reassignment and using that for humour. But then maybe that's a way those people use to get over those feelings of awkwardness and move to a place of acceptance?

I think it's a combination of the fact that our society has historically had a very perverse relationship with sex, in the sense that it is simultaneously icky, taboo and not to be talked about, yet also crucially important for brownie points and social cred.

However, the main reason is simply the fact that it's such a captivating example of unintentional humor, and what happens when you don't pay attention to your image. In many ways, it's the linguistic equivalent of the famous rabbit-duck optical illusion. It's curious and elicits a response when one realizes the double entendre.

It's hardly problematic, unless your definition of problematic is for everyone not to be dull as cardboard to every little example of unintentional humor in their lives.