In 30 seconds
Kernighan discusses JavaScript’s improvements and the security and debugging challenges of large dependency trees.
- 1EvolutionKernighan notes improvements in language and tooling.
- 2UncertaintyHe avoids predicting total dominance.
- 3DependenciesLarge dependency trees can be hard to inspect.
Takeaways
- JavaScript and its tooling have evolved.
- Libraries make development more complex.
- Dependencies introduce security and robustness questions.
Read the edited text by chapter
JavaScript’s evolution
Lex Fridman asks Brian Kernighan about JavaScript’s growth despite its early reputation as an irregular language.
Lex Fridman asks Brian Kernighan about JavaScript’s growth despite its early reputation as an irregular language.
Kernighan says both the language and compilation technology have improved, making it viable for front-end and back-end work.
He says he has written some JavaScript but does not consider himself an expert; he expects it to remain important without predicting it will dominate everything.
Libraries and dependencies
Fridman asks about modern programming’s reliance on libraries built by other people.
Fridman asks about modern programming’s reliance on libraries built by other people.
Kernighan contrasts earlier work with today’s large dependency trees, which can be difficult to understand or debug.
He raises security and robustness concerns when developers install many packages without knowing their contents. These are his concerns about dependency management.
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