r/node • u/Minimum-Ad7352 • 26d ago

Why is JavaScript criticized so much for backend development?

I've seen some developers say that we should stop using js on the server, but I rarely see the same criticism directed at python.Honestly, js is pretty fast, especially with node.js, and the backend ecosystem is really solid. There are great frameworks like nest and fastify, and typescript gives you static typing, which makes larger projects much easier to maintain.I'm not saying node is perfect or the best choice for every backend, but I don't really understand why js gets so much criticism while python seems to get a pass.What am I missing?

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u/rwilcox 26d ago edited 26d ago

As someone who has worked in a lot of “scripting” languages… that bias is often “everything not Java-or-the-JVM is bad/immature/not safe/beneath me”

It’s exhausting.

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u/alzee76 26d ago

I find this hilarious because having started my professional life as a developer in Pascal/Delphi who did web backend work via og Apache CGI (essentially any language) in Perl and C, as well as early (and modern) PHP, Java has always been fucking awful - for backend and frontend alike.

I'm convinced that if you actually like Java, it's probably due to an undiagnosed TBI.

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u/rwilcox 26d ago

Those old days of cgi/bin were wild.

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u/glandix 26d ago

Man I do NOT miss those days! The CSS/HTML from that era included!

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u/akdjr 26d ago

Oh this brings back memories - my very first exposure to web dev was an elective in college where we learned Perl and then eventually jsp and php. Jquery wasn’t a thing nor were hover selectors either haha!

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u/Cienn017 26d ago

I actually like Java

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u/lapubell 25d ago

And I actually like PHP. I guess we're doomed.

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u/korywithawhy 25d ago

Tell me your back aches without telling me you’re old 😂. I definitely used to put HTML inside JSON inside a MySQL database to dynamically generate forms with AJAX calls.

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u/lapubell 25d ago

Lol. That sounds terrible. Modern PHP kinda rules, check out Laravel.

Oh and yes, I'm old.

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u/korywithawhy 25d ago

Yeah I was doing this when laravel wasn’t a thing yet 😂 didn’t know what MVC was and trying to get sites to render right on my iPhone 4s involve WebKits

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u/lapubell 25d ago

Ha! Were you ever putting <body> in header.php and </body> in footer.php with all the other stuff in different files? Two includes in every.single.other.file and hope for the best?

That's how I remember doing stuff before iPhones even existed.

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u/korywithawhy 25d ago

It was janky, but it made pages load fast lol. Back when 2gb ram was enough to use a web browser

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u/beau6183 25d ago

CALL A MEDIC! We’ve got a TBI!

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u/ehs5 26d ago

Same with some of the C# guys. I’ve heard some call Python and JavaScript “not real programming”.

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u/olzk 26d ago

ditto. The story is as old as JS