On: Today’s JavaScript, from an outsider’s perspective...

[Gigachad]

I'm also sympathetic to the author but don't really see it as a problem. NPM modules are not apps on the App Store. They aren't intended to just be run by regular people quickly. The steps described in the article show someone hitting Node.js with a hammer until it gets closer to doing what they want without any understanding of what is going on. Which is fine, that's what people do often, but it isn't a failing of the tools when this doesn't work.

I don't expect to walk in to a workshop and find the welding tools intuitive to use with no training, and I don't expect npm modules to be intuitive to an outsider either.

[lodovic → Gigachad]

Sure, but that is how it's sold: NodeJS and Javascript are marketed as super easy, perfect for beginners. They're not, in my opinion.

[trivialsoup → lodovic]

If you listen to marketers fast cars make you younger and handsomer and give you a full head of hair.

Don’t look at how things are sold, look at how they are. In this case it’s code, of course there’s complexity.