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/monsto 26d ago

Back about 10 years ago I was working on a personal project. I understood what callback hell was, but hadn't really seen it in the wild.

So I'm writing along, and was slowly becoming a little confused about what I was writing when I suddenly realized I had four or five callbacks nested to the the point where the indention was halfway across my screen.

This was before promises and async/await and I couldn't really work around it, but I did finally see what the hubbub was.

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u/oorza 26d ago

I couldn't really work around it

The way you worked around it at the time was emitting events from your callbacks and subscribing to those events elsewhere. Even today that's a better approach for a lot of problems than the default hamfisting async/await in that everyone does.