> He uses the "JavaScript has complex toolchains" excuse to not use best practices like JSX and a bundler
Those are best practices if your goal is to stick with javascript no matter what, which is not the goal of the comparison. Resorting to a transpiler which adds whole new complexity dimensions and failure points to your build, and doing so while aiming to introduce a complex workflow that requires half a dozen modules to become manageable is far from the ideal solution.
> Resorting to a transpiler which adds whole new complexity dimensions and failure points to your build, and doing so while aiming to introduce a complex workflow that requires half a dozen modules to become manageable is far from the ideal solution.
What? The entire post was about comparing JavaScript to alternatives which use... compilers/transpilers:
GWT - Java-source-to-JS, server and client-side framework
TeaVM - Java-bytecode-to-JS compiler
JSweet - Java-source-to-JS (and TypeScript) compiler with library ecosystem
CheerpJ - Full JVM implementation on the browser
Vaadin Flow - Java-source-to-JS-source, server and client-side framework
Bck2Brwsr - Java-bytecode-to-JS compiler
Those are best practices if your goal is to stick with javascript no matter what, which is not the goal of the comparison. Resorting to a transpiler which adds whole new complexity dimensions and failure points to your build, and doing so while aiming to introduce a complex workflow that requires half a dozen modules to become manageable is far from the ideal solution.