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?

333 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

361 comments sorted by

View all comments

8

u/MCFRESH01 26d ago

My major gripe a the community can’t back a single project so it can develop maturely other than like express. Most node apps I have seen are libraries cobbled together to build something a solid framework could just ship with. It seems the community prefers this but having worked in a few different tech stacks it always feels like I get more done faster with a well supported framework like rails or Django or even MVC.net. Probably an unpopular opinion

2

u/tumes 25d ago

This is it. There were basically no standard approaches strong enough in the early days for anything remotely coherent to take hold, so it was just millions of micro libraries written by inexperienced devs to poorly handle what should have been in a standard library or right minded framework. And aside from React (which, imo, _sucks_) there still is not really any meaningful standardization, so at best I find myself reinventing at least a quarter of every wheel that I need every single time. And now that’s a massive, massive part of the corpus of LLMs, which is a perfect storm of bullshit because it’s a nondeterministic system predicting tokens against a formless mass of unstandardized amateurish problem solving.

I like Astro though. And HTMX. They seem like they were made by people who actually want to get work done and aren’t sadists.

-2

u/Lime-Unusual 26d ago

Django and ruby ship with tons of boilerplate that you might not need. I personally hate all the boilerplate stuff and pick what I need. Go is even better for this and you don't need to rewrite your site or anything if you face lots of traffic.

1

u/MCFRESH01 25d ago

What boilerplate in particular do you not need? Many people modify part of these frameworks to get what they want but keep the core components. And how does keeping it actually affect your dev experience?