It seems like there’s always been an anti-JavaScript feeling amongst people, and now with all the hype around Flex (and it’s JavaScript wanna-be sibling ActionScript), it seems like the rift is getting bigger. As an interpreted language, it was always frowned upon. The fact that it wasn’t compiled into tiny ones and zeros made it a second class language. Some even went as far a saying it wasn’t a programming language, but solely a programming <span class="sidenote" title="It's far more powerful than BASH, not to bash BASH enthusiasts (pun intended.)”>script.

I’m Joel Nagy, a lead developer at Arc90, the creator of Sidenotes and a JavaScript zealot. In the Web 2.0 world, JavaScript seems to have found a reawakening. I’m extremely joyous that this new movement has come to pass.

I’ve been programming in JavaScript for about a decade now and it’s one of my favorite languages. The simplicity of it is great, including the loose typing and its powerful connection with both HTML and XML. Surprisingly, after a few dormant years, XMLHTTP Requesting broke down the barriers which held the web in a page paradigm. Moving forward, the idea of Web 2.0 (despite all it’s silliness sometimes) will bring forth many ideas and approaches to web development that were never imagined.

JavaScript evolved from a simple language which was used to manipulate form data to a tool that recreates web pages into web applications with the flair of Flash and the prowess of any desktop application. The developers at Arc90 plan to launch some cool tools built with JavaScript. There are many ways to reach the ends we create but JavaScript allows those ends to be reached in a simple way. It will let non-programmers enjoy the bounty of our creations.

JavaScript is finally getting the recognition it truly deserves. I’m fairly sure that without JavaScript, ActionScript would never have become as important to Flash and Flex. Yahoo! Widgets utilizes JavaScript to allow users to interact with their computers and the web. XUL, the foundation of Firefox, runs on JavaScript.

Perhaps one of the greatest things to come out of Web 2.0, and to a true extent before Web 2.0, is the JavaScript API. It’s amazing how many are available. Yahoo!, Google and many others have finally stepped into this world and released APIs and toolsets in JavaScript. Granted that many of the APIs and toolsets are bloated and overly complicated, JavaScript is definitely progressing towards a more useful end.

In the future, I’ll be blogging about some of the cool JavaScript-powered tools that we’ll be releasing in the Lab as well as commenting more broadly about other ideas, tricks and trends around Javascript. Stay tuned!