I guess I'm about the last person in the world to recognize this (<i>cough</i> Steve Yegge <i>cough</i>), but it really is starting to look like the next big server-side language is going to be JavaScript.<p>It's got a non-intimidating C-like syntax, has some powerful features (e.g. being able to use anonymous functions as closures), is garbage collected, and can run client side. And you've got three or four well-funded organizations full of smart people duking it out over who can make the fastest implementation.<p>The syntax is a bit ugly if you're used to something like Ruby. Comparing Express to Sinatra, I miss the block syntax and the implicit returns (although JS handles passing in multiple blocks quite elegantly).<p>Maybe what we'll see are a number of languages that compile down to JavaScript, sort of RJS on steroids.
This would look a lot nicer in coffee-script, oh wait...<p><a href="http://twitter.com/tjholowaychuk/status/9314981876" rel="nofollow">http://twitter.com/tjholowaychuk/status/9314981876</a><p>Seriously though: JavaScript is a great language, but I'd prefer a sub-dialect to smooth the syntax over a bit. It is not-at-all DSL friendly and, frankly, Express' route syntax looks like shit when stacked up against Sinatra or even bottle.py
For anyone in the Charlotte, NC area who's interested, Aaron Heckmann (one of the contributors) will be giving a presentation on Express April 15th:<p><a href="http://www.meetup.com/CharlotteJS/calendar/12929151/" rel="nofollow">http://www.meetup.com/CharlotteJS/calendar/12929151/</a>