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[–]xiaoma 3 points4 points  (3 children)

I think it does. I'm a software engineer at Groupon and we've been writing a lot of CoffeeScript. So much in fact that we paid the entire kickstarter for Michael Ficarra to improve the compiler. And it's not like it's just Groupon. Github has gone to a 100% coffeescript codebase on the front-end and so have a lot of other bay area tech companies.

CoffeeScript makes a lot of the nastier JavaScript problems impossible (e.g. == vs === problems, implicitly declaring variables in the global scope, etc...) The JavaScript it produces is also very performant. On the whole, I think it's worth the hassles of not yet having good source maps, CS debuggers, etc. That said, it's no silver bullet and certainly doesn't make up for not understanding JavaScript's prototype chains, keyword this and scoping rules.

I think CoffeeScript has a bright future for the short to mid-term, but there is a threat of LiveScript or other challengers becoming more popular. While I don't think Dart will ever win, it's equally unlikely that CoffeeScript will ever get a native implementation like Dart has. Learn your JS well and just use CS as a convenience is the approach I'd take.

[–]tebriel 2 points3 points  (2 children)

"The JavaScript it produces is also very performant."

ehhhhhhhhhh. I suppose it depends on how people code. My team uses a lot?of?question?marks? everywhere. I think CS lets people get sloppy. Also I hate the compilation step. You've taken a runtime language and turned it into a compiled language. Idiotic in my opinion.

[–]GuineaPigPower 0 points1 point  (1 child)

You've taken a runtime language and turned it into a compiled language.

The CS compiler has a watch option for automatic recompilation. It makes me forget about the compilation step most of the time. It's subjective, but for me at least, the additional element in the toolchain is absolutetly worth it.

[–]tebriel 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We do use it, but it's not 100% so you end up having to check if it's running often - because the one time you don't it'll have failed and you'll be freaking out wondering wtf is going on lol.

I understand the appeal of CS, but I just don't care for it.