Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it. ― Edmund Burke

If you were using Javascript as your primary language for some time, you might wonder where it’s heading. There was this thought in the morning, given all the circumstance. What if Javascript will become something like Java bytecode in the future, or maybe it already is? What I mean is that other intermediary forms that require compilation are replacing the vanilla language: Typescript, ASM.js, Coffeescript (not that popular anymore), ES7 and ES8 with Babel, Kotlin, Grooscript, etc. Then I draw a parallel between Javascript and Bytecode, and it kind of fits in a way. Java then becomes Typescript, ASM.js (C/C++) is like Kotlin, Coffeescript like Groovy, ES8 (and ES9, ES10) are like all newer Java versions.

Why this idea matters? For one, anyone could look into the evolution of Java and its ecosystem to make sure mistakes do not get repeated. Furthermore, if the above correlation is tangible, we could expect the fork of the current most popular Javascript Virtual Machine (browser) into something like Android. Keep in mind that Node.js is already a thing, just like Electron and React Native. What is more, Vanilla will most likely cease to be the primary target for the developers. Just like nobody writes Java bytecode by hand. Finally, the JVM ecosystem’s task runners are pretty crucial and have evolved into a few most popular ones (Maven, Gradle, Ant). Given the last thought, Webpack, Parcel and similar will collapse into a few and will be a thing you need to understand to get a job.