Is JavaScript the "Next Big Language"?

I recently read an old post of Steve Yegge from early 2007 entitled The Next Big Language. In it, he describes what are the fundamental characteristics that a new programming language must have if it is to become popular. Throughout his post, he hints at what he thinks the next big language ("NBL") might be but intentionally does not mention it by name for various reasons.

However, it seems to be quite evident that Yegge is probably referring to JavaScript (and\or the ECMAScript standard). A lot of his later posts seem to support that conjecture. One post in particular entitled Dynamic Languages Strike Back really does emphasize the strong possibility of JavaScript being the NBL:

"...So JavaScript. JavaScript has been really interesting to me lately, because JavaScript actually does care about performance. They're the first of the modern dynamic languages where performance has become an issue not just for the industry at large, but also increasingly for academia.

Why JavaScript? Well, it was Ajax. See, what happened was... Lemme tell ya how it was supposed to be. JavaScript was going away. It doesn't matter whether you were Sun or Microsoft or anybody, right? JavaScript was going away, and it was gonna get replaced with... heh. Whatever your favorite language was.

I mean, it wasn't actually the same for everybody. It might have been C#, it might have been Java, it might have been some new language, but it was going to be a modern language. A fast language. It was gonna be a scalable language, in the sense of large-scale engineering. Building desktop apps. That's the way it was gonna be.

The way it's really gonna be, is JavaScript is gonna become one of the smokin'-est fast languages out there. And I mean smokin' fast..."

Yegge has also mentioned using JavaScript server-side for some project he was working on at Google. Yes, server-side and not client side. If what he is saying is true and that the JavaScript language is continuing to evolve with more and more features transforming it into a powerful multi-paradigm language and programmers start using it not just client side but more on the server side as its performance becomes better and faster then it could really position itself as a first class language on par with C# and Java. Quite a leap from JavaScript's somewhat humble beginnings.

Obviously, Yegge is just one voice (albeit a very popular one) on the topic but the importance of JavaScript as a fundamental language for web apps is not to be taken lightly. This reminded me of a recent conversation about JavaScript with another software developer with whom I used to work. He had stated that he felt like he was currently doing more coding in the client-side/UI layer with JavaScript than he was coding in the middle layer with C# even though the middle tier is where he is expected to be doing most of his development. He also made the observation how the web application he is working on was starting to resemble more like a classic Client-Server application despite the presence of a middle tier.

The implication of this is that this type of architecture is one that more people might be gravitating towards when developing robust web applications without realizing it. Interesting that with the advent and surging popularity of web applications, the decline of desktop applications ("fat", "thick" clients) was greatly exaggerated. They are coming back just in an altered and less recognizable form.

The statements and experiences of the developer I mentioned earlier (combined with Yegge's writings) are extremely telling and is something to which we should pay attention. The increase use of JavaScript and more importantly how and where it's being used is a trend that should be closely watched in the ever changing world of modern software development.