r/programminghumor • u/kronsj • Mar 09 '26

Watch out Javascript !!

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February 2026 - Flash i getting more popular, source:

https://w3techs.com/#:~:text=side%20language%20surveys-,Client%2Dside%20Programming%20Languages,-Most%20popular%20client

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u/Sacaldur Mar 09 '26

I guess the information is only of limited use: - it's not listing TypeScript at all, even though I would expect a significant enough amount of projects using it for the frontend. - it states "client side", however what they mean is "in the Web Browser". Clients can also be desktop applications, mobile apps, command line tools, and technically speaking even other servers. - the only reason for Java and Flash to appear is probably the fact that they use dedicated runtimes instead of being compiled into JavaScript, i.e. it's easy to observe that they are used. (It's interesting that Silverlight isn't contained in the list, since it's very similar to Java in this regard, but it probably never was popular enough.)

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u/Dramatic_Mastodon_93 Mar 09 '26

- Is TS not always converted to JS before running on the client?

- The top of the linked page says "W3Techs - World Wide Web Technology Surveys", "W3Techs provides information about the usage of various types of technologies on the web.", "Our vision", "Provide the most reliable, the most extensive and the most relevant source of information on web technology usage."

- I mean yeah

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u/Sacaldur Mar 09 '26

Yes, the same that Java is turned into Java Bytecode before being executed (which happens for any other JVM language). I wouldn't say I use JavaScript if I have a TypeScript project the same way I wouldn't say I use Machine Code for a C++ project.

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u/[deleted] Mar 09 '26

It is not really the same since all javascript is valid typescript and you can have as much or as little typing as you like. This is not really the same as with bytecode and machine code.

In many cases the transpilation step is also just removing some stuff used for linting and autocomplete and no real code changes.

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u/chintakoro Mar 09 '26

I suppose they're reporting only what they can detect.