[Info-vax] basic BASIC question

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 2/6/2025 4:13 PM, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
> On Thu, 6 Feb 2025 09:50:21 -0500, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>> Small code bases, frequent releases and high user tolerance for small
>> ooopses favor a language like JavaScript. Ada would not work well in
>> this context from a business perspective.
> 
> JavaScript is also a dynamic language, unlike Ada. Maybe not as dynamic as
> Python, but still lets you do a lot in quite compact code.
> 
> I’m not sure I agree with the “tolerance for small ooopses”. There is a
> thing called “use strict”, which helps catch common JavaScript errors. It
> is even enforced in new-style modules.

If a web page gives an error, then users try to ignore it, try
with another browser and worst case just try again next day - and
nobody is really surprised. If airplane control software has an
error that cause a crash and kill hundreds of people, then it
makes world wide headlines.

>> Code bases are not small anymore though. And TypeScript has taken huge
>> chunks of market share from JavaScript in recent years.
> 
> TypeScript is just an attempt to add static typing to JavaScript. Maybe it
> works for native-side code bases (i.e. not in a browser sandbox).

I don't think the word *just* in "just an attempt to add static
typing" is a fair description.

It does add optional static typing, but that enables a lot
of things that impact how code is written: different way
to do OO, generics, enum etc.. It is a significant change.

Arne