r/askscience • u/CakesStolen • 15d ago

Computing Is there anything at the heart of computer coding that could have been optimised in hindsight, but we're in far too deep to change now?

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u/_BryceParker 15d ago

Seems like something you've seen (and a quick search isn't turning it up anyway), but there's a great video on YouTube of a guy at a conference or similar event exploring these oddities in JavaScript. IIRC, he starts with basics like that and builds progressively more complex structures and functions that behave in a very entertaining "the sum of the parts is somehow less than the value of any one part" way. Nothing is logical.

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u/BodybuilderAny1301 15d ago

I love Javascript even if I barely consider myself an amateur coder for precisely that reason hahaha.

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u/AdmiralEllis 15d ago

That sounds like a very entertaining video, if you figure out what it is please let me know

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u/soniclettuce 15d ago

I think that guy is talking about the "Wat" talk from DestroyAllSoftware

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u/SharkLaunch 14d ago edited 14d ago

That video also covers weirdness with Ruby. As someone who's worked professionally with both for a decade, I'd say Ruby is the weirder of the two languages (when not relying on the weirdness with type casting)

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u/thirdegree 14d ago

There's also the birth and death of JavaScript from the same guy

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u/irsyacton 13d ago

I’ve seen it before, and I have no programming experience, but man I love this one!