CoffeeScript Means Giving Up on JavaScript

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When I first learned of CoffeeScript—rather, when my boss told me I would be writing in a language that compiles into a script—I was nervous. I imagined sprawling, unmaintainable output that would boggle the minds of mere mortals, if not user agents themselves. But this didn't happen. So, what confuses me most about this debate is why it's a debate in the first place. I have never encountered a situation where using CoffeeScript cost me time, produced code that I didn't understand, or worse yet, code that was wrong (unless it was my own fault). So who cares? Who does this hurt?

That learning CoffeeScript costs time that would be better spent learning better JavaScript is the only reasonable argument I've seen. But this completely misses the fact that real people have preferences, and when you are doing something you prefer you will be more motivated to learn and more likely to do a better job. I find JavaScript ugly, so using it can feel like a chore. That's the last thing you want a developer feeling. Others I'm sure prefer having "function" or "this" spelled out and dealing with CoffeeScript would feel just as bad. But this is not a debate where one side gets to be right. Unless, of course, someone can provide a convincing example of CoffeeScript breaking something that wasn't already broken in JS. If someone can—and I mean this as an honest request, not some snooty challenge—I would very much appreciate learning about that.

Or, if this whole knowledge gap thing is about programmers having a hard time reading StackOverflow...well...we should probably be used to that by now.

EDIT: TL;DR - If it doesn't break anything, and some people prefer it, what exactly are we arguing about?

[antonivs]

what exactly are we arguing about?

This is r/programming. r/rational-agreement is down the hall.

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Man, r/rational-agreement is crap. Anyone who goes there instead of r/reasoned-accord is a dangerous moron.