CoffeeScript vs JavaScript vs Python

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CoffeeScript

3.4K
1.2K
+ 1
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JavaScript

365.4K
278.1K
+ 1
8.1K
Python

247.3K
202K
+ 1
6.9K

CoffeeScript vs JavaScript vs Python: What are the differences?

# Introduction
  1. Syntax: CoffeeScript offers a more concise and cleaner syntax compared to JavaScript, eliminating the need for semicolons and curly braces, making the code more readable and easier to write.

  2. Variables: CoffeeScript introduces the concept of variables based on indentation rather than braces, which can lead to a more structured and organized codebase. In contrast, JavaScript and Python use braces for defining the scope of variables.

  3. Error Handling: JavaScript and Python have more in-depth error-handling mechanisms compared to CoffeeScript, making it easier to debug and catch errors in the code, thus enhancing the overall robustness and reliability of the application.

  4. Function Definitions: Overriding function declarations is allowed in CoffeeScript, unlike JavaScript and Python, which can lead to unexpected behavior and potential bugs in the program if not managed carefully.

  5. Standard Libraries: JavaScript and Python come with comprehensive standard libraries for various functionalities, while CoffeeScript relies more on external libraries, which can lead to larger overhead and increased complexity in the codebase.

  6. Compilation: CoffeeScript needs to be compiled into JavaScript before execution, adding an extra step in the development process, unlike JavaScript and Python, which are interpreted languages, allowing for more agile development and debugging processes.

In Summary, CoffeeScript offers a more concise syntax and variable handling, while JavaScript and Python provide better error handling, function declarations, and standard libraries without the need for compilation. 
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Pros of CoffeeScript
Pros of JavaScript
Pros of Python
  • 199
    Easy to read
  • 179
    Faster to write
  • 126
    Syntactic sugar
  • 104
    Readable
  • 104
    Elegant
  • 73
    Pretty
  • 53
    Javascript the good parts
  • 48
    Open source
  • 44
    Classes
  • 35
    "it's just javascript"
  • 16
    Compact code
  • 15
    Easy
  • 13
    Simple
  • 13
    Not Javascript
  • 2
    Does the same with less code
  • 1
    I'm jobs I'm software engineer
  • 1.7K
    Can be used on frontend/backend
  • 1.5K
    It's everywhere
  • 1.2K
    Lots of great frameworks
  • 898
    Fast
  • 746
    Light weight
  • 425
    Flexible
  • 392
    You can't get a device today that doesn't run js
  • 286
    Non-blocking i/o
  • 237
    Ubiquitousness
  • 191
    Expressive
  • 55
    Extended functionality to web pages
  • 49
    Relatively easy language
  • 46
    Executed on the client side
  • 30
    Relatively fast to the end user
  • 25
    Pure Javascript
  • 21
    Functional programming
  • 15
    Async
  • 13
    Full-stack
  • 12
    Future Language of The Web
  • 12
    Its everywhere
  • 12
    Setup is easy
  • 11
    Because I love functions
  • 11
    JavaScript is the New PHP
  • 10
    Like it or not, JS is part of the web standard
  • 9
    Expansive community
  • 9
    Everyone use it
  • 9
    Can be used in backend, frontend and DB
  • 9
    Easy
  • 8
    For the good parts
  • 8
    Powerful
  • 8
    Can be used both as frontend and backend as well
  • 8
    No need to use PHP
  • 8
    Easy to hire developers
  • 8
    Most Popular Language in the World
  • 7
    Its fun and fast
  • 7
    Hard not to use
  • 7
    Versitile
  • 7
    Nice
  • 7
    It's fun
  • 7
    Popularized Class-Less Architecture & Lambdas
  • 7
    Agile, packages simple to use
  • 7
    Supports lambdas and closures
  • 7
    Love-hate relationship
  • 7
    Photoshop has 3 JS runtimes built in
  • 7
    Evolution of C
  • 6
    Can be used on frontend/backend/Mobile/create PRO Ui
  • 6
    Easy to make something
  • 6
    It let's me use Babel & Typescript
  • 6
    1.6K Can be used on frontend/backend
  • 6
    Client side JS uses the visitors CPU to save Server Res
  • 5
    Scope manipulation
  • 5
    Clojurescript
  • 5
    Everywhere
  • 5
    What to add
  • 5
    Promise relationship
  • 5
    Stockholm Syndrome
  • 5
    Function expressions are useful for callbacks
  • 5
    Client processing
  • 4
    Only Programming language on browser
  • 4
    Because it is so simple and lightweight
  • 1
    Test2
  • 1
    Hard to learn
  • 1
    Subskill #4
  • 1
    Not the best
  • 1
    Easy to learn and test
  • 1
    Easy to understand
  • 1
    Easy to learn
  • 1
    Test
  • 0
    Hard 彤
  • 1.2K
    Great libraries
  • 964
    Readable code
  • 847
    Beautiful code
  • 788
    Rapid development
  • 691
    Large community
  • 438
    Open source
  • 393
    Elegant
  • 282
    Great community
  • 273
    Object oriented
  • 221
    Dynamic typing
  • 77
    Great standard library
  • 60
    Very fast
  • 55
    Functional programming
  • 51
    Easy to learn
  • 46
    Scientific computing
  • 35
    Great documentation
  • 29
    Productivity
  • 28
    Easy to read
  • 28
    Matlab alternative
  • 24
    Simple is better than complex
  • 20
    It's the way I think
  • 19
    Imperative
  • 18
    Very programmer and non-programmer friendly
  • 18
    Free
  • 17
    Powerfull language
  • 17
    Machine learning support
  • 16
    Fast and simple
  • 14
    Scripting
  • 12
    Explicit is better than implicit
  • 11
    Ease of development
  • 10
    Clear and easy and powerfull
  • 9
    Unlimited power
  • 8
    Import antigravity
  • 8
    It's lean and fun to code
  • 7
    Print "life is short, use python"
  • 7
    Python has great libraries for data processing
  • 6
    Rapid Prototyping
  • 6
    Readability counts
  • 6
    Now is better than never
  • 6
    Great for tooling
  • 6
    Flat is better than nested
  • 6
    Although practicality beats purity
  • 6
    I love snakes
  • 6
    High Documented language
  • 6
    There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious
  • 6
    Fast coding and good for competitions
  • 5
    Web scraping
  • 5
    Lists, tuples, dictionaries
  • 5
    Great for analytics
  • 4
    Easy to setup and run smooth
  • 4
    Easy to learn and use
  • 4
    Plotting
  • 4
    Beautiful is better than ugly
  • 4
    Multiple Inheritence
  • 4
    Socially engaged community
  • 4
    Complex is better than complicated
  • 4
    CG industry needs
  • 4
    Simple and easy to learn
  • 3
    It is Very easy , simple and will you be love programmi
  • 3
    Flexible and easy
  • 3
    Many types of collections
  • 3
    If the implementation is easy to explain, it may be a g
  • 3
    If the implementation is hard to explain, it's a bad id
  • 3
    Special cases aren't special enough to break the rules
  • 3
    Pip install everything
  • 3
    List comprehensions
  • 3
    No cruft
  • 3
    Generators
  • 3
    Import this
  • 3
    Powerful language for AI
  • 2
    Can understand easily who are new to programming
  • 2
    Should START with this but not STICK with This
  • 2
    A-to-Z
  • 2
    Because of Netflix
  • 2
    Only one way to do it
  • 2
    Better outcome
  • 2
    Batteries included
  • 2
    Good for hacking
  • 2
    Securit
  • 1
    Procedural programming
  • 1
    Best friend for NLP
  • 1
    Slow
  • 1
    Automation friendly
  • 1
    Sexy af
  • 0
    Ni
  • 0
    Keep it simple
  • 0
    Powerful

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Cons of CoffeeScript
Cons of JavaScript
Cons of Python
  • 3
    No ES6
  • 1
    Corner cases in syntax
  • 1
    Parentheses required in 0-ary function calls
  • 1
    Unclear what will be grouped to {…}
  • 22
    A constant moving target, too much churn
  • 20
    Horribly inconsistent
  • 15
    Javascript is the New PHP
  • 9
    No ability to monitor memory utilitization
  • 8
    Shows Zero output in case of ANY error
  • 7
    Thinks strange results are better than errors
  • 6
    Can be ugly
  • 3
    No GitHub
  • 2
    Slow
  • 0
    HORRIBLE DOCUMENTS, faulty code, repo has bugs
  • 53
    Still divided between python 2 and python 3
  • 28
    Performance impact
  • 26
    Poor syntax for anonymous functions
  • 22
    GIL
  • 19
    Package management is a mess
  • 14
    Too imperative-oriented
  • 12
    Hard to understand
  • 12
    Dynamic typing
  • 12
    Very slow
  • 8
    Indentations matter a lot
  • 8
    Not everything is expression
  • 7
    Incredibly slow
  • 7
    Explicit self parameter in methods
  • 6
    Requires C functions for dynamic modules
  • 6
    Poor DSL capabilities
  • 6
    No anonymous functions
  • 5
    Fake object-oriented programming
  • 5
    Threading
  • 5
    The "lisp style" whitespaces
  • 5
    Official documentation is unclear.
  • 5
    Hard to obfuscate
  • 5
    Circular import
  • 4
    Lack of Syntax Sugar leads to "the pyramid of doom"
  • 4
    The benevolent-dictator-for-life quit
  • 4
    Not suitable for autocomplete
  • 2
    Meta classes
  • 1
    Training wheels (forced indentation)

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489
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1.4K
12.8K
2.5M
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62.4K
2.2M
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What is CoffeeScript?

It adds syntactic sugar inspired by Ruby, Python and Haskell in an effort to enhance JavaScript's brevity and readability. Specific additional features include list comprehension and de-structuring assignment.

What is JavaScript?

JavaScript is most known as the scripting language for Web pages, but used in many non-browser environments as well such as node.js or Apache CouchDB. It is a prototype-based, multi-paradigm scripting language that is dynamic,and supports object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles.

What is Python?

Python is a general purpose programming language created by Guido Van Rossum. Python is most praised for its elegant syntax and readable code, if you are just beginning your programming career python suits you best.

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What are some alternatives to CoffeeScript, JavaScript, and Python?
TypeScript
TypeScript is a language for application-scale JavaScript development. It's a typed superset of JavaScript that compiles to plain JavaScript.
ES6
Goals for ECMAScript 2015 include providing better support for large applications, library creation, and for use of ECMAScript as a compilation target for other languages. Some of its major enhancements include modules, class declarations, lexical block scoping, iterators and generators, promises for asynchronous programming, destructuring patterns, and proper tail calls.
Babel
Babel will turn your ES6+ code into ES5 friendly code, so you can start using it right now without waiting for browser support.
jQuery
jQuery is a cross-platform JavaScript library designed to simplify the client-side scripting of HTML.
React
Lots of people use React as the V in MVC. Since React makes no assumptions about the rest of your technology stack, it's easy to try it out on a small feature in an existing project.
See all alternatives