Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Oh don't worry, some day JavaScript will as stagnant as PHP, too. Just wait, time flies.

If it's a stable environment that runs old code you want, then if I had my way we'd all be programming interactive distributed network extensible web apps in PostScript instead of JavaScript, and that language has been stagnant for a much longer time than PHP has ever existed (13 years before PHP 1.0 was released in 1995), since you can still print and view all of your old PostScript documents from 1982, 42 years ago.

HyperMedia browser with embedded "applets" in PostScript:

https://donhopkins.medium.com/hyperties-discussions-from-hac...

HyperCard-like GUI builder and SimCity in PostScript:

https://donhopkins.medium.com/hyperlook-nee-hypernews-nee-go...

Visual programming language in PostScript:

https://donhopkins.medium.com/the-shape-of-psiber-space-octo...

Owen Densmore's description of John Warnock's "Linguistic Motherboard":

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29295116

Owen Densmore's object oriented PostScript programming system:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18696116

Brian Reid's history of JaM, Interpress, and PostScript:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37202149

PostScript's relation to Forth, Lisp, and Smalltalk:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21968175

PostScript's relation to PDF:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37202149

Alan Kay on "Should web browsers have stuck to being document viewers?" and a discussion of Smalltalk, HyperCard, NeWS, and HyperLook:

https://donhopkins.medium.com/alan-kay-on-should-web-browser...



I'm not sure what this link dump is intended to do?

And you're confusing stagnant with not breaking backward compatibility and / or the entire ecosystem not changing every couple of years.




Consider applying for YC's Winter 2026 batch! Applications are open till Nov 10

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: