When I hear powerful language, I think of languages that are good at intensive tasks like assembly, c, rust, Python (because of numpy, pandas, pyspark, cuda, etc.).

[–] echindod@programming.dev 13 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Python is powerful because it easily wraps C libraries that do real work! Just kidding mostly.

But yeah, js isn't a language I would describe as powerful. Ubiquitous? More capable than you would expect given it's history? Bloated?

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Python is powerful because it easily wraps C libraries that do real work! Just kidding mostly.

Not kidding. There's no rule against that though. It's good at it's niche.

[–] 9point6@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Does that not put JS (node) back on the table?

I'd say it's the low level language doing the heavy lifting, python or JS in this scenario are just front-ends.

Hell, I think FORTH has C bindings, that's not power, that's mental illness

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Sure, but there are good and bad frontends. JavaScript has a tendency to silently fly off the handle in mysterious ways due to the crazy type system. Python will typically fail more predictably, and is famously easy to write. I know nothing about FORTH, honestly.

[–] odium@programming.dev 2 points 4 months ago

Dw, no one does.