Javascript is also average. But Typescript is definitely an above-average language. Much better than Python, especially when you consider the insane performance compared to Python and the fact that it can run in the web.
Typescript tries to fix a lot of the problems JS has, but still inherits a lot of its problems.
> especially when you consider the insane performance compared to Python
In my experience, people who complain about Python’s performance don’t actually have experience with software optimization. Aka, the same people who decide to use C++ “because fast”.
Even if you only look at synthetic benchmarks, there is not a single thing that would make javascript stand out as a good choice for high performance computing, V8 or not. But even if you find yourself in a situation where you’re stuck with javascript and have to optimize a particularly nasty hot path, the types of techniques you’d need to rely on aren’t going to be all that different than what you’d have to do with Python (with similar results).
The difference is that the Python environment can almost always outsource processing to a C library (maybe even hand written assembly). That’s really only possible with typescript if you’re working with Node, but I don’t think that’s what you’re referring to considering the context of this thread.
> and the fact that it can run in the web.
AKA, the only reason to use Javascript pre-Node. Post Node, you get to share code throughout your whole stack, but even then that’s rarely the best objective choice, and the benfits of using a single language tend to be overblown in my experience. For example, an Elixir/Erlang backend would be overwhelmingly more beneficial to any project than the minor conveniences of a single language (and I think Erlang is even slower than Python)
When/if web assmebly becomes more popular, I think JS/TS will finally die because web developers will finally be exposed to good languages, and will not want to go back to the mess that JS is/was.
Sarcasm?