Ask Slashdot: Making JavaScript Tolerable For a Dyed-in-the-Wool C/C++/Java Guy?

DocDyson writes "I'm a dyed-in-the-wool C/C++/Java developer with over 20 years of experience. I'm making a good living and having fun doing back-end Java work right now, but I strongly believe in being a generalist, so I'm finally trying to learn the HTML5/CSS3/JavaScript future of the Web. However, I find JavaScript's weak typing and dynamic nature difficult to adapt to because I'm so used to strongly-typed, compiled languages with lots of compile-time error-checking and help from the IDE. Does anyone out there who has made this transition have any tips in terms of the best tools and libraries to use to make JavaScript more palatable to us old-school developers?"

Comments

Re:You have a clear anti-JS bias.

[Joce640k]

Sorry ... but weakly typed languages are the junk food of the programming world.

e.g. All those SQL injection attacks? Mostly down to weak typing.

Articles like this (which is highly regarded in the weak-typing world)? Wrong, wrong, WRONG. Don't rely on writing code to try and make errors stand out if people pay attention, write code that refuses to compile if you make a mistake.

Compile-time checking is one of the foundations of writing solid software. The compiler never forgets to check stuff, it never has a bad day, a late night or insufficient caffeine. The more work you can get it to do for you, the better.

(This rant also applies to C programmers - C hardly lets you automate anything, get C++ and start using proper containers/strings ASAP)