There's real momentum behind a lot of things, including C and FORTRAN. That doesn't mean your next project is necessarily going to be written in either C or FORTRAN.
The crop of JavaScript derivatives are probably not going to disappear, but riddle me this: while there are many variations on JavaScript's syntax, why do other languages that are arguably JavaScript competitors, like Ruby and Python, not have the same wide selection of alternate syntaxes and sugar packets? Could it have something to do with the usability of the default dialect?
I personally think it's a bad sign when so many people feel they need to write a transpiler to add some syntactic and behavioral enhancements. The language should provide a functional, livable set by default, at least good enough that writing a transpiler doesn't sound like the time-effective solution.
I don't understand ASM.js very well but it sounds like it's a new type of bytecode that allows programs written in many different languages to be executed in the browsers' JavaScript VM. If this truly bring us first-class support for non-JavaScripts (which won't be real until browser vendors either ship or make it transparent and automatic to install additional DOM bindings), I will be so happy. I will also be curious to see if it has any impact on the popular use of JavaScript itself -- the node buzz already kind of seems to be fizzling out and moving onto things like Go, so maybe we won't have to wait too long.
> why do other languages that are arguably JavaScript competitors, like Ruby and Python, not have the same wide selection of alternate syntaxes and sugar packets? Could it have something to do with the usability of the default dialect?
Popularity, and the fact that things were very bare-bones before ES6.
> If this truly bring us first-class support for non-JavaScripts (which won't be real until browser vendors either ship or make it transparent and automatic to install additional DOM bindings), I will be so happy
Interop with existing JS code/data(structures) will still be a problem. Shipping (or rather, not re-shipping every single time the user vists) your favorite language's runtime and standard library will become a problem (which can be solved). By that time JS will be good enough to make it even less worth it, especially for dynamic/GCed languages.
> the node buzz already kind of seems to be fizzling out and moving onto things like Go, so maybe we won't have to wait too long.
This is true. There hasn't been anything new happening in node land for quite a while now, and the basic core platform is showing its age. With tools such as typescript, async/await and generators available, however, a revival is possible. TS tooling combined with a well designed and documented "core standard library" in the style of Dart's stdlib could make node a very nice platform again.
> I personally think it's a bad sign when so many people feel they need to write a transpiler to add some syntactic and behavioral enhancements. The language should provide a functional, livable set by default, at least good enough that writing a transpiler doesn't sound like the time-effective solution.
You focus too much on ES5.
It's not about the language, it's the platform.
Yes, it is the point. Nothing more, nothing less.
> Nobody knows how UIs will be built with web technologies in two years!
You can't say that things like es6/react/typescript/clojurescript will be plain gone in two years, there's too much real momentum behind these things.