Why not write the backend in JavaScript?

In today's software development field, JavaScript has become an irreplaceable language. It has a wide range of applications, from front-end development to back-end development to mobile app development, JavaScript is everywhere. However, there is some debate about whether JavaScript is suitable for writing back-end code. This article will focus on this question: why not write the backend in JavaScript.

1. History of JavaScript

JavaScript was originally a scripting language used to enhance the interactivity of HTML pages, which can be run on the client side. As web applications become more complex, various frameworks and libraries have been developed to allow JavaScript to play a more important role in front-end development. In this process, Node.js came into being. With the help of Node.js, JavaScript started to enter the field of back-end development.

2. Challenges of writing back-end in JavaScript

JavaScript is a very flexible and easy-to-learn language, but it has some challenges in back-end development. For example, although JavaScript was originally designed with the possibility of implementing functions with optional parameters and default values ​​in mind, it did not have a native way to handle these things. In back-end development, function parameters are often required but can be null, so care must be taken when writing code to avoid type errors.

Additionally, classes and inheritance lack native support in JavaScript. This problem has been solved, but developers had to put in a lot of work in the process.

Before you start using JavaScript for back-end development, you also need to understand some basic concepts, such as asynchronous programming, event loops, and callbacks. These concepts are essential for front-end developers, but can be very complex and difficult for back-end developers who have never dabbled with JavaScript.

3. Different Goals of Front-End and Back-End Development

JavaScript is very popular in front-end development, and there are some important reasons for it. The goal of front-end development is to provide users with an efficient and intuitive user experience. This means the front end must be fast, responsive, and interactive. In contrast, the goal of backend development is to manage and process data on the server side. The backend code must be able to handle large amounts of data and maintain a high degree of security and reliability during processing. In this process, performance is critical because the backend servers need to handle millions of requests.

Because of these different goals, front-end and back-end development have different programming language needs. In front-end development, JavaScript is preferred due to its dynamic nature and flexibility. It can be modified quickly, allowing front-end developers to quickly respond to market changes. However, JavaScript lacks security and reliability, which are indispensable features for backend development.

Relatively speaking, back-end development usually uses statically typed languages, such as Java, Python, C#, etc. These languages ​​come with strong typing and property checking, which ensures that backend developers’ code is safe and reliable. The processing tasks that need to be performed on the backend are usually success or failure, so speed and performance are also more important here.

4. Limitations of JavaScript in the back-end

Although JavaScript has made some progress in back-end development with the help of Node.js, the language has been limited in back-end development. The application limitations still cannot be ignored. Since JavaScript prioritizes front-end development, it is not suitable for large-scale application development. In contrast, back-end development usually requires more complex and efficient functionality than the front-end, which is exactly what JavaScript has to deal with.

Also, JavaScript is not a language designed to handle data and storage. Although Node.js can be used to perform some data processing on the backend, Node.js is obviously insufficient when it comes to processing large amounts of data.

Summary

Although JavaScript is widely used in front-end development, there are still certain challenges and limitations in using JavaScript in back-end development. Front-end and back-end development each have different needs and goals, which determines the programming languages ​​chosen for the front-end and back-end. In addition, the problems that JavaScript needs to solve in back-end development are also more complex, which means that JavaScript faces great challenges in the development process of large-scale applications. Therefore, for teams that need to develop large-scale applications, choosing a statically typed language for back-end code will be a more reliable and safer choice.

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