Javascript

Okay, every now and then I get to be embarrassed. Many years ago (probably around 2001), I looked into Javascript, and only saw that it was a toy language, inconsistent between browsers (there were only two back then) and not worth learning. (IIRC, I fell in love with Python shortly thereafter.)

In my defense, a) there were only two browsers back then :), and b) JS was quite inconsistent between them (and possibly still is). But I've spent a few hours recently looking at JS again, and I'm seeing that it *IS* a real language, every bit as much as Python. And with add-ons like Firebug that provide a debugger and great visibility to what's going on in the browser, and jsUnit to provide unit testing for JS code, it's a full-fledged programming environment.

And while at work, we've done quite a bit with JS that's centered on AJAX and UI, we've more recently put together some prototype stuff that's looking a lot more like a full fledged application, which looks quite interesting, and as I dive in, I may well get to be involved in that.

Yup, I'm thinking it's time to shed some of my JS misconceptions, and join in the fun!