I keep looking at ClojureScript, and decide to try it. And then I get to the "requires JDK" and just turn around and walk out the door. It seems like an interesting language, but it would be nice to have it run without that requirement.
[Edit to correct: the following is no longer entirely valid: see downthread.]
That said, if you want to benefit from the Google Closure optimizations, you currently do need to use the JVM toolchain. IIRC, there's been work on the Google Closure side to run without a JVM, and if that's the case, there may be opportunities in the future to take advantage of this in the ClojureScript toolchain.
Give them a test: if they are reasonable they will respond to anything reasonable in a reasonable way. So ask them in detail why they want to do this, how they want to do it, are there alternatives. If they answer in a fair and honest fashion, then propose some way to solve their problem in a way that is fair to you. There are lots of good suggestions here: third party, at your site, hiding the secret sauce, etc.
If they are bullies, irrational, arrogant or silly, then save yourself lots of headaches and very nicely say its not something you can do.
In one of the YC videos someone says that in Silicon Valley when you suggest an idea people think about what would happen if it did work rather than all the possible failure modes. From that perspective, the article starts with failure modes and ends up with success modes. YC startups tend to be young people, I suspect because they don't have "experience." While the junior/senior dichotomy is one aspect, the article is even more interesting when framed in the context of success-mode thinking versus failure-mode thinking and how to take effective action.
Hey Zuck, Are you concerned that your nude photos might be used against you at some point? Please post them here so we can know to take them down if someone ever uses them against you. Gee, I guess that doesn't quite make sense does it?
The task that requires JavaScript/React/Redux/WebPack/Babel is enormously complex. On the other hand writing a server side process in Node is a delight and in my experience an order of magnitude easier than writing the equivalent code C++ or C. Or than writing it in the language that-must-not-be-named but also starts with a "Java". My conclusion is that the language is less of an issue than the task.
