Why Is Everyone Unhappy With JavaScript? | State of Javascript 2024 Survey

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Show Notes

Introduction:

• State of JavaScript is a yearly survey that is considered fairly accurate to the sentiment and usage of the JavaScript ecosystem
• This year 14,015 people took the survey
• Some really interesting findings came out this year
  • JavaScript frameworks are almost all slightly declining in general happiness using them (especially meta frameworks)
  • The JavaScript language as a whole is declining/stagement in sentiment
  • Astro is the meta-framework to beat?
  • Everyone is crazy about nullish coalescing
  • Everyone wants static typing built into JavaScript
  • Typescript is dominant 
  • People are either not using or lying about AI

Declining happiness

• Mostly statement on js as a whole but some frameworks/libs saw a decrease in interest and happiness
• People aren’t happy with code architecture, state management, dependencies, build tools
  • https://2024.stateofjs.com/en-US/usage/#top_js_pain_points 
• Meta-frameworks have some weird trends
  • https://2024.stateofjs.com/en-US/libraries/meta-frameworks/#meta_frameworks_ratios
  • Why is that? 

Astro

• Astro has the highest increase in positivity
• Highest retention score (with SvelteKit coming up second)
• Highest increase in interest
• It’s used at work number jumped up over SvelteKit this year
  • https://2024.stateofjs.com/en-US/libraries/meta-frameworks/#meta_frameworks_work

JS features

• https://2024.stateofjs.com/en-US/features/#syntax_features 

TypeScript

• https://2024.stateofjs.com/en-US/usage/#js_ts_balance 

AI

• https://2024.stateofjs.com/en-US/usage/#ai_generated_code_balance
• https://2024.stateofjs.com/en-US/other-tools/#ai_tools 

State of JS 2024 Survey

• ‍https://2024.stateofjs.com/en-US/

Timestamps

Timestamps are machine generated - there may be some errors.

• 00:00 Introduction and Episode Overview
• 01:26 Diving into the JavaScript Survey
• 02:50 JavaScript Community Sentiment
• 03:45 Frameworks and Libraries: Trends and Insights
• 05:48 The Role of Creators vs. Developers
• 16:41 Meta Frameworks: Usage and Positivity
• 45:15 Astro: The Rising Star
• 46:44 Exploring Astro's Unique Approach
• 47:26 Astro's Simplicity and Flexibility
• 47:48 Astro vs. Other Frameworks
• 48:23 Astro's Future and Transitionary Nature
• 49:46 Astro's Open and Opinionated Nature
• 51:16 Astro's Server-First Architecture
• 52:16 Learning Path for New Developers
• 57:46 Complexity in Modern Web Development
• 01:04:47 JavaScript Features: Nullish Coalescing
• 01:09:21 TypeScript's Growing Dominance
• 01:12:44 AI in Code Generation
• 01:25:55 Concluding Thoughts and Survey Insights