Cold, hard data is valuable, but sometimes you just want to know how somebody feels. This is why for this section, I asked developers if they disagreed (1), were neutral (3), or agreed (5) with the following statements.
Building JavaScript apps is overly complex right now
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Based on the number of questions in this survey alone, it's easy to see that navigating the JavaScript ecosystem isn't always as straightforward as it should be.
A large majority of developers agrees, and we can only hope this is just part of JavaScript's growing pains.
JavaScript is over-used online
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We've all heard snide comments about web frameworks requiring dozens of lines of code just to write a simple “hello world”, or about how JavaScript-heavy ads and widgets are bloating up web pages.
So is there just too much JavaScript online? As may admittedly be expected from JavaScript developers, a vast majority of respondents disagreed.
After all, JavaScript is just a tool (and a very powerful one at that). It's not so much about using it less, as using it better.
The JavaScript ecosystem is changing too fast
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Another common complaint is that things are just changing too fast: by the time you've mastered Grunt, Gulp is already the new hotness. And by the time you've finally switched to that, everybody who's anybody has already switched to Webpack.
This gripe is definitely shared by a large proportion of developers. We're enjoying the ride, but sometimes we just wish it'd slow down a tiny bit.
I would like JavaScript to be my main programming language
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It's a given that you need JavaScript to build web apps, but that doesn't mean you have to like it. In fact, JavaScript has always held a reputation as a somewhat immature, hacky language that real programmers only use because they don't have a choice.
But according to the survey, that reputation is not warranted. The overwhelming majority of JavaScript developers use it not because they have to, but because they want to.
JavaScript is moving in the right direction
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With all this talk of JavaScript fatigue, it might be tempting to conclude that developers are fed up with the state of JavaScript. But that couldn't be further from the truth.
Most respondents agree that despite all its flaws, JavaScript is moving in the right direction overall.
I enjoy building JavaScript apps
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At the end of the day, none of this matter if you don't enjoy your job.
Thankfully this is one area where there's no debate: building apps using JavaScript is fun.
This survey is too damn long!
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JavaScript fatigue? More like survey fatigue, am I right folks? I'll be here all week!