I don’t want to sound harsh, but saying Javascript is a simpler version of Java just tells me you have never used Java seriously.
It’s like saying Korean is a simpler version of Spanish.
Yes, Java and Javascript are both programming languages, but they don’t even share the same paradigm.
You might be confusing the motivation that led to the creation of Javascript with the actual implementation.
Having said that, I have used Java professionally for more than 7 years, then I switched to mainly Javascript, and later to Typescript, and I’m never going back. I agree with your overall point.
In my opinion it is up there with null and other billion dollar mistakes.
The language only works as well as it does because hundreds of people smarter than me have spent hundreds of man-years creating toolings and ecosystems around it to work around all its problems.
This is not to be read as a dismissal of Brendan Eich or anyone - it is totally amazing that he threw together a language that has worked so amazingly well in three weeks.
But everytime one switches between TS and JS one wonders how much money could have been saved if he had somehow invented TS instead back then.
How about instead of analogies (which we've misunderstood even on this thread), just say this: "Java and Javascript are very different languages, don't be confused by the similarity of the names".
Of course, at this point virtually everyone knows this, now we are only arguing about which analogy to use to describe something we all understand.
It’s like saying Korean is a simpler version of Spanish.
Yes, Java and Javascript are both programming languages, but they don’t even share the same paradigm.
You might be confusing the motivation that led to the creation of Javascript with the actual implementation.
Having said that, I have used Java professionally for more than 7 years, then I switched to mainly Javascript, and later to Typescript, and I’m never going back. I agree with your overall point.