I've been a long-time Javascript hater. Probably didn't help that I started out 20 years ago, and dealing with cross-browser support was a big issue. And of course, let's so no more about Internet Explorer shudder. And then NPM - a direct result of JavaScript's anaemic standard library.

Anyway, things have changed a lot, and I recently worked on my first ever web app with native ES6 - no transpiling to ES5! It was... not nearly as bad as it used to be! Modules are a thing, and the language has evolved with things like async/await, evolved for the better, I think. The standard library is still horribly anaemic though - the number of "helper" functions needed is ridiculous.

But still, I would no longer classify myself as a hater. Progress at last :)

If static-typing is your thing, you should give a try to TypeScript. It's easily the biggest game changer that happened to the JS world in the recent years.

There are some JS problems that TypeScript doesn't solve, like Array.prototype.sort and .map, but it's still quite nice.

I appreciate Javascript's LISPy qualities, but it has an inordinate number of footguns and a relative lack of standard, stable libraries. Coming from languages like Java and Erlang that are relatively scrupulous about such things is a bit jarring.

I do like Typescript though, as it adds some really nice ergonomics.

I think in most cases it's probably not hate but a deep, deep love.

JavaScript, LISP under C disguise. No wonder it's "popular" on HN.

Assorted musing : Rust, OCaml under C disguise.

It looks similar, but it isn’t. You can’t blow your stack in JavaScript while in C that’s practically a language feature and a design goal.