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Got Any Unique Use Cases for JavaScript?

What are some interesting use cases for JavaScript outside of web development that you've explored or would like to explore?

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Top comments (7)

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manchicken profile image
Mike Stemle

I think JavaScript is an excellent general purpose programming language. There are some fun niches for it, too, and I’m not even going to mention web.

  • If you use MongoDB, you can use JavaScript to perform a map-reduce operation across data (just be careful, mongo is single-threaded)
  • You can compile Kotlin to JavaScript, allowing you to reuse and repurpose Kotlin libraries for JavaScript
  • Using WASM, you can interact with binaries written in other languages using JavaScript
  • Google Docs and Sheets use a subset of JavaScript for macros, so does Zoho’s stuff
  • JavaScript is an excellent gateway language for folks looking to dip their toes into functional programming

That’s all I’ve got time for right now, but that’s a lot of fun stuff right there.

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Sloan, the sloth mascot
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manchicken profile image
Mike Stemle • Edited

In my 25 years of professional work, you’d think I would have gotten used to having folks make unnecessary corrections to my statements, but I regret to report that I have not.

It is impolite to advance your ideas by presenting them as polite criticism, please stop doing it. Especially when this sort of conduct is directed at women and people of color, it can send a message that you don’t think they’re not good enough, especially the part where you mention how advanced you are. These types of corrections don’t really add to the conversation except to tell the person you’re correcting that they’re wrong about something important.

I grew up programming, since I was a young child of seven. I have programmed computers as my primary time-suck since I was 12. I have never found type safety to be a primary concern.

At the end of the day, however, my remarks in the prior comment were me describing my own life experience, which was not an invitation for correction or review. I apologize for the misunderstanding, and I hope this clears things up.

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jmfayard profile image
Jean-Michel πŸ•΅πŸ»β€β™‚οΈ Fayard

Didn't mean to create this, I deleted my comment

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manchicken profile image
Mike Stemle

It’s all OK. Don’t forget that we’re all learning and growing; all of us. Just as I’d ask someone to correct me if I said something wrong in French, it’s good to make sure we also correct folks when they could adjust conduct to make community more inclusive.

You’re all good my friend, and I hope you keep engaging and growing with us all.

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jmfayard profile image
Jean-Michel πŸ•΅πŸ»β€β™‚οΈ Fayard

I believe in admitting mistakes, that makes life easier to everyone.
Clearly my comment didn't have the effect I intendeded, well I delete it and do better next time.

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ben profile image
Ben Halpern

JS is useful just about anywhere where you might want an abundance of libraries and lots of developers who understand the code.

Stuff like React Native points this out. If your team is going to be mostly made up of webdevs, sometimes it makes sense to max this out as much as possible.

I'd personally not go out of my way to use JS if it's not the case of "we already have webdevs, might as well".