I had a goal to create the simplest accounting software for Mac and Windows to help small businesses in Canada.
This led me to a long 2 years of exploration of the best language that could provide these features:
- Great overall productivity
- International wide-spread usage for long-term sustainability and easy to find documentation
- Versatility for creating websites and desktop softwares
- Enjoyable developper experience
- Ability to create good looking modern UIs
- Job openings with this language
I tried Python, Java, C# and C++ without finding what I was looking for.
When I discovered Javascript, I really knew it was the right language to use. Thinking of this today makes me realize even more how great a decision this has been to learn, use and master Javascript. It has been a fun, challenging and productive road on which I am still satisfied.
Obviously, when I refer to Javascript, it is not without implying the vast ecosystem around it. For me, JS is a whole universe in which almost every imaginable tools exist. It's awesome - for real. Thanks to all the contributors which have made it possible.
To be even clearer about how intense I am with Javascript, let's just say that my first passion was music. Until, I find coding with Javascript! Yep, I know!
So in conclusion, I chose Javascript because it is versatile, enjoyable, widely used, productive for both desktop softwares and websites with ability to create modern great looking user interfaces (assuming HTML and CSS are involved) and finally there are job openings.
How come C# wasn't suitable for simple accounting software? ASP.NET + JS is extremely powerful. JS by itself is not so useful, not good for the backend.
C# was not enjoyable. Too much overhead and boilerplate code like Java which I prefer Javascript over these two. Sure C# was the language that I honestly tried like 3 times to build a starter project with - but it felt heavy and discouraging. I was not able to accomplish simple things quickly like I have been with Javascript and Electron js. With Electron, I did not need anything else than Javascript to code my software. It is litterally a web page running through a chromium instance. (For example, Visual Studio Code is built with Electron js). So with that strong JS foundation, I was also able to create any websites I needed and even some basic API for the only part of back end I needed (resetting password by email validation code).
So in summary, let's say that C# was the second best choice I had and I often tried to love it but I still can't. I will retry it in 2022 and see if thay changes. But honestly, I am addicted to Javascript. It's great.
As a side note, the software I built with Javascript is currently used by around 45 users every single day with a rising tendency curve on the usage chart. It has become #1 google search result for a niche keyword in Québec Canada without any marketing investments. So I learned Javascript with that software and it was a success. Which means to me that my choice was sustainable and wise. It is still easy to maintain and fun to code that software. It also got me a job ;) So Javascript you said is not useful on its own? Not so sure.