为什么JavaScript有能力成为未来企业级编程语言？Why JavaScript Will Become The Dominant Programming Language Of The Ente

毫无疑问，自从上世纪90年代中期发行以来，JavaScript就已经成为最流行的Web开发语言之一了。在2012年9月份，行业分析公司RedMonk就公布了JavaScript在开发语言里已经处于遥遥领先的地位。这主要归功于JavaScript提供丰富的、动态的网页内容的能力，以及JavaScript的轻便性和高易用性。

尽管JavaScript最初只是一个浏览器脚本语言，但是近几年，我们已经能够明显看到它在不断地演变：在桌面端、移动设备和服务端Web App领域都有所发展。在不久的将来，JavaScript有望成为IT企业里占据主导地位的开发语言——最终取代现在普遍使用的C，C++和Java开发语言。

下面就有几个因素是支持这种推论的：

移动性和客户端开发

事实上，目前大部分企业都已经意识到移动性是冲刺市场、获得竞争优势和提高效率的基本条件，在许多情况下，这主要是通过数量级体现出来的。人们正在采用新的设备和应用程序，他们更加需要的是源源不断的创新、更新，这就要求应用程序发布的周期要更短，要达到数天或者数周，而不是按照月或季度来算。

用户体验也已成为一个至关重要的问题。当然，这可能受到了苹果的影响——提高用户可接受的标准，其将用户体验上升到了一个新的高度。App的成败和用户日益提高的需求无法分开了。

在企业中，BYOD（自带移动设备）和BYOA（自带应用程序）的趋势愈发不可阻挡，人们对移动设备的痴狂刺激着市场的不断壮大，而用户体验已经成为App是否成功的关键。时至今日，任何CIO都无法忽略它的存在。

而JavaScript有能力满足这些快速发展的需求。JavaScript可以完成快速开发，并最大限度的提高用户体验。可以这样说，JavaScript天生就适合移动应用程序的开发平台。这绝非说说而已，目前苹果和Google都已经在其移动开发工具包里开放了JavaScript应用程序接口，以此来扩大他们的开发领域。

云和服务器端开发

提到企业级的移动解决方案，我们就不得不提到云计算。而JavaScript在其中的作用也越来越显得重中之重。虽然JavaScript在以往的服务器端开发并没有多大建树，但在过去的四年中，通过Node.js，JavaScript已经迅速通过后端技术平台被广泛接受。

Node.js是一个软件平台，用于构建可扩展的网络App，它是建立在Google JavaScript V8引擎基础之上的，目前其增长势头非常强劲。据统计，数百万计的开发人员和企业正在大范围的使用Node.js，比如雅虎、通用、道琼斯、沃尔玛以及戴尔等等。

根据支持Node.js的Strongloop公司的数据显示，目前每天Node.js的下载量达到了3.5万。而目前云计算的几大巨头，如亚马逊，谷歌和微软的云计算服务也都已经支持Node.js。Node.js本身拥有超过3万模块可供选择，这正是由于其强大的开发者生态系统，才使其得到了众多IT企业的关注。

人才资源和技能

虽然没有一个明确的规章制度来检测哪一个语言是最受欢迎的，但是各项指标是最有说服力的证明，例如调查问卷、职位招募和Github项目。很多数据都表明，目前企业对JavaScript开发者的需求量正在逐步上升。

SitePoint是一家澳大利亚的图书出版商，专注于从职位空缺里研究开发者和比对数据，其2012年的数据显示，JavaScript的需求量增长速度比其他任何语言都要快，JavaScript是Ruby、Objective C、Android (Java)的两倍，是C++和C#的三倍。

根据TIOBE编程语言排行榜显示，通过对高级工程师、开课课程和第三方销售商的调查，在2013年6月份，JavaScript在增长最快的编程语言里排行第五，仅落后于Objective C，PHP，Java和Python。

从哪开始？

JavaScript有很强的实力，且具有灵活性和普遍性。早期使用JavaScript的企业现在已经准备好将Web开发者转型成移动开发者，借力把他们所拥有的JavaScript的技巧应用在这些新的领域。同样的，传统的企业App服务端开发者正在将他们的专业知识应用到JavaScript上来，与此同时，他们也发现将专业知识和JavaScript相结合要比和Java/C#语言结合来的更容易。

正在成为默认的企业级编程语言

JavaScript成为企业级编程语言是有很大的可能性的，但这并不意味着其它语言一夜之间有萎缩了，因为仍然有大量的遗留系统需要它们的支持。JavaScript快速的开发效率、低廉的成本是很多企业所青睐的，更重要的是它已经被很多企业所广泛使用，并正在不断的扩大，甚至Microsoft也更看好JavaScript流行起来，促使它在Windows 8的开发里成为首席编程语言。

此外，在高校计算机课程中，由于JavaScript具有便于理解和快速掌握的优点，致使其成为学生学习的主流语言。相信在未来几年，JavaScript会成为众多程序员的“母语”。当然，对于企业来说，这一切都再好不过了。一个简单、开放，并同样适用于移动和服务器端的开发语言，为何不选择它呢?

原文：Read Write

Guest author Nolan Wright is the CTO of Appcelerator.

There is no denying that since its inception in the mid 90’s, JavaScript has become one of the most popular Web development languages. In September 2012, industry analyst firm, RedMonk, showed it as the top language. Much of this is due to its ability to deliver rich, dynamic web content, its relatively lightweight and its high ease of use. 

Although initially developed as a browser-agnostic scripting language, in recent years, we’ve seen its continued evolution beyond the desktop to areas such as mobility and server-side web applications. Over the next few years, JavaScript is poised to become the dominant language of the enterprise for IT - ultimately displacing the all-encompassing and highly pervasive C, C++ and Java languages. 

There are several factors that support this reasoning:

Mobility & Client-Side Development

Today virtually all enterprises recognize that mobility is foundational to disrupting markets, gaining competitive advantage and increasing efficiencies, in many cases by an order of magnitude. The rate at which users adopt new devices and apps, and the fact they demand a constant stream of innovations and updates, is driving shorter, more frequent release cycles, measured in days or weeks rather than months or quarters. 

User experience has also become a crucial issue, due largely to Apple, who dramatically raised the bar for what is considered acceptable. Users now demand a great user experience, and the overall success and adoption of an app is highly correlated to it. In the enterprise, trends like Bring Your Own Device and Bring Your Own App are driving consumer-like behavior regarding the adoption of mobile apps. The result is that the user experience has become key to the success of any application regardless of its target and not something a CIO can ignore.

JavaScript’s ability to meet the demands of rapid development, while at the same time maximizing the user experience, makes it a natural fit for mobile development platforms. It’s no coincidence that both Apple and Google have exposed JavaScript application programming interfaces to their mobile development tool kits in order to expand their developer base.

Cloud & Server-Side Development

When it comes to mobile solutions in the enterprise, the cloud is the name of the game. And here JavaScript’s role is fast becoming just as central. Although not historically associated with server-side development, JavaScript has in the last four years seen swift adoption as a backend technology platform via Node.js.

Node.js, a software platform used to build scalable network applications based on Google's V8 JavaScript engine, is growing like gangbusters. It is being adopted by millions of developers and enterprises for a wide range of use-cases. Big brand names like GM, Yahoo, Dow Jones, Walmart and Dell have all deployed Node.js and are touting its merits.

According to Strongloop, a company and community that supports Node.js, there are over 35,000 downloads of Node.js per day. When it comes to cloud adoption it’s one of the top four software systems, supported by five of the six major platform-as-a-service providers including Amazon, Google and Microsoft. Node.js has over 30,000 modules available. It’s this strong ecosystem of developers that makes it so compelling to enterprise IT. 

Resources & Skill Sets

Although there is no definitive measure to determine the absolute popularity of different development languages, much of the research uses metrics such as search queries, job postings and Github projects as the basis of its reporting. 

SitePoint, an Australian book publisher focused on developers, compared data from job vacancies for 2012 and showed that JavaScript demand has increased faster than any other language. JavaScript doubles Ruby, Objective C and Android (Java), and over three times more than C++ and C#.

The TIOBE Programming Community Index, another indicator of the popularity of programming languages, looks at the numbers of skilled engineers, courses and third party vendors based on popular search engine queries. For June 2013 it showed that JavaScript was the fifth fastest growing language, year over year, after Objective C, PHP, Java and Python. 

Where To Start?

It’s rare that shifts as dramatic as mobile and cloud don’t require IT organizations to re-staff or re-train around the (often complex and befuddling) New Thing. But JavaScript, owing to its power, flexibility and ubiquity, holds out just this promise.Early-adopter enterprises are already repurposing their Web developers as mobile developers, leveraging their JavaScript skills and applying them to these new domains. Similarly, server-side developers of traditional corporate applications are migrating their expertise to JavaScript and find it an easy and natural migration from more complex languages such as Java and C#.

Becoming The Default Enterprise Programming Language

There are strong odds in favor of JavaScript becoming the dominant language ofthe enterprise. This isn’t to say every other language will atrophy overnight (they won’t; too many legacy systems count on them) nor that JavaScript is free of issues (no language is). But the gigantic efficiencies to be gained by having a lingua franca for the enterprise, especially when that lingua is easily learned and already in wide adoption, makes the case for JavaScript very strong. Even Microsoft has warmed to the JavaScript movement, promoting it to first-class citizenship in Windows 8.

Importantly, there’s also JavaScript’s popularity in high school computer courses,owing to its simplicity and quick learning curve. At least the next few generations of programmers are likely to treat JavaScript as their native programming tongue. 

All of this is good news for the enterprise. A simple, open language, equally adapted to building both client and server-side apps? There’s no such thing as technology utopia, but JavaScript looks like the next best thing.

Cloud computing images courtesy Shutterstock.