It's definitely more versatile, but I think that's actually one of its disadvantages. It's a prototypal language, so you miss out on learning proper object-oriented programming practices. You can do functional programming, but unless you use TypeScript, the notion of strong typing and type safety isn't there. You _can_ use Node to write client-side JavaScript programs, but you're basically tying your boat onto Chromium/Chrome (because it uses V8).
This isn't to say that JavaScript isn't capable. It's plenty capable, and when combined with TypeScript, it's pretty powerful. I just think that it's not a great idea as a primary first-principles language.
Comments
It's definitely more versatile, but I think that's actually one of its disadvantages. It's a prototypal language, so you miss out on learning proper object-oriented programming practices. You can do functional programming, but unless you use TypeScript, the notion of strong typing and type safety isn't there. You _can_ use Node to write client-side JavaScript programs, but you're basically tying your boat onto Chromium/Chrome (because it uses V8).
This isn't to say that JavaScript isn't capable. It's plenty capable, and when combined with TypeScript, it's pretty powerful. I just think that it's not a great idea as a primary first-principles language.