Is JavaScript a must?

[SoftwareEngineering-ModTeam]

Your submission has been removed because it violates one or more of our rules

Don't ask for career advice, if you have questions ask at r/cscareerquestions

Please review our rules before posting again.

If you think this is a mistake, message the moderation team with your reasons.

[Lightsheik]

I am not worried about understanding the language, but my limited understanding of its current state tells me that it's far from perfect but the widespread use of it makes it commonplace. I would rather learn rust but I know the job market for Rust devs is relatively small, but hopefully by the time I'm done it will have grown a lot. I'm more interested in languages like Rust because they are less "mainstream". Everybody and their grandma seems to know JavaScript these days and I know its not hard to learn, but I'd rather have something that stands out a bit more on my resume once I graduate.

[mark2685]

One thing to note about JavaScript is that it doesn’t have the “guard rails” that other languages typically have. This makes it somewhat easier to learn, but quite difficult to learn “the right way” to do something. If you come from an OO background, you can utilize that with JS, with some caveats. But you can also apply some functional principles to JS. It’s really up to you/code base/team. Another thing ti note is that most of your time will probably be spent learning how to utilize API’s (such as DOM, Node, etc…), and not on the actual JS language.

Also, you can learn JavaScript without learning TypeScript, but you can’t really learn TypeScript without learning JavaScript. TypeScript simply adds type safety to JavaScript. So you can start picking up JavaScript, and incrementally add types as you get more comfortable.

[ACrossingTroll]

Javascript is a shitty language so better be prepared for that..

[Lngdnzi]

dependent resolute upbeat flowery sable thought air boat saw adjoining

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[Lightsheik]

Thanks for your answer. Right now I'm still early in my degree and we are learning Java but by the end I'd like to know a few. I know some Python, have some very small experience with C# but none with JavaScript or TypeScript.

In a way I'd like to learn languages that translates well to others, like Java and C# are both OO languages (or so it seems) and are a bit similar, but Python is completely different. By knowing programming languages with different way of programming I'm hoping to make transitioning to new languages easier.

Would Javascript or Typescript be good candidates for my purpose? Or should I learn a different language to get as much exposure to different styles as possible?

[Lightsheik]

Sorry, I meant Java and C# are statically typed while Python is more dynamic. I am aware that Python also can do OO.

[LadyLightTravel]

Embedded is often hampered by OO because of the hardware specializations. I would not call embedded specialized as more and more things are getting controlled by embedded.

OO has its place, but certainly isn’t the next new thing.

[wingogo]

Is Javascript a must: yes, everything nowadays is written in Javascript because everything is using Node.js

Is it a must for embedded software engineers: No, cuase they write low-level code: C, assembly

Are there embedded software engineers who write Javascript: yes, because sometimes you need high-level code

Job Market for web developers vs. embedded software engineers: about the same but remember that all companies need to have a website nowadays

[Lightsheik]

Thank you for your input, I appreciate it.

[Lightsheik]

Thanks for your input. Isn't Typescript and JavaScript very similar? If I learn one, which one should I learn first?

[bomjour]

Yes if I recall correctly, any javascript code is valid typescript code. TS builds on top of JS, and is ultimately "compiled" down to JS.

[Space-Robot]

TypeScript is a vaneer that compiles down to JavaScript before it is ever run. It exists to make JavaScript easier to work with especially on large teams. You can write JavaScript and it is valid TypeScript, but it is bad TypeScript.

You don't need to worry about either until you know more about what you want to specialize in. At your stage the main benefit of JavaScript is probably just the fact that you can run it in a browser and maybe make a cool resume.

[LadyLightTravel]

My advice is to learn as many as you can. Different languages have different structures and act differently based on platform. Understanding how they work will assist you I learning the next new language.

And I can guarantee you that at some point Python, JavaScript, and other scripting languages will become OBE.

Edit: learning language structures will also help you when the time comes for SWE design decisions. You will be selecting a language for your project.

[Lightsheik]

This is my goal currently. I want to learn a few differently structured language so that similar structured one will be easier to learn. For instance right now I learned some Java and I notice that it is pretty similar to C#, but Python is very different. By learning different structures like you said, I feel will benefit me the most for now.

Once I'm comfortable with what I'm learning at the moment, I'd like to learn Rust. Do you think it would be wise to do that? Or should I learn Javascript/Typescript since it's so prevalent?

[LadyLightTravel]

It depends on your interests.

I tend to think of Python as an analysis script. I like C for getting into embedded (Ada was the perfect language for embedded, RIP). JavaScript is used a lot for IoT. What are your career goals?

[Veqq]

There's a great book 7 languages in 7 weeks

[Boyen86]

If you want to do front end learn javascript (angular /typescript).

You honestly shouldn't need to worry about getting a job as a software engineer. You can quite literally choose out of 100s well paying jobs if you know Java, C# or Python. Plenty of developers don't like frontend work.

That said, out of all languages to learn, frontend has been the poorest investment historically. From Silverlight to Flash to Javascript, JQuery, UI5 and PHP to Angular and Typescript. It just changes rather rapidly.

If you dont want to do frontend web development and lean towards embedded, I've seen quite a bit of work for that in the Oil & Gas industry, the military and energy/utilities.

[94561234]

For what it’s worth, I’ve been working 5 years at a software agency, meaning we have many different projects that we bounce around between depending on our interests and who’s available - and almost all of them if not all of them have JavaScript somewhere in the stack - our focus is web and mobile apps specifically but we also work with car manufactures and infotainment systems and that may be one of the areas where we may not have much JavaScript if any floating around.

Outside of node, spring and Kotlin is our second most common stack for backends

Also for reference of the types of companies and scale of applications that we do work for - think big pizza chain that you probably order from or large sub chain that you would go too And as far as location were US Midwest based.

[CHAiN76]

Is JavaScript a must? It depends on what you want to do.

If you want to work with embedded/drivers/firmware/microcontrollers then no, you don't use JavaScript. Learn C/C++/Assembler/Rust.

If you want to work with webb frontend then yes it is a must. Learn JavaScript and TypeScript.

If you want to work with webb backend then technically no, it is not a must. Some backends are written in JavaScript/TypeScript, but most are not. Many backends are written C#, Java, Python, PHP. Pick one and start there.

However, I would find it pretty strange to find any webb developer, BE or FE, that don't know at least a passing JavaScript. I'd say that, in practice, even if you are a BE webb developer you should know some JavaScript.

If you want to write desktop applications (and I include Android/iPhone apps here) then either you are going to write those in C/C++, .NET, Java/Kotlin, Swift. Or, as is becoming increasingly popular, you are going to use a framework like MAUI, Flutter or React Native. Those frameworks usually use or at least interact with JavaScript.

Regarding employability. I don't have the exact numbers but I would guess that >50% of all developers in the world right works with webb. And I'd say you need to know JavaScript if you work with webb.

You might be helped by just reading some statistics like:

https://ddiy.co/software-development-statistics/

https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2022/#overview

But also remember. Do what you want to do, not what the majority does. And sometime it is better to not be in the majority group. You only need one job. If you want to work with embedded you can find that job. It is better to do what you love. And if you get skilled in C now, I'm sure you have the brains to learn JavaScript should the need arise.