In short – for the joy of structured coding and clarity – something that often gets lost within all the curly braces and critical errors on missed colons ;-)
A bit of background
I’ve always had a fascination with programming. My first taste of it came from 8-bit computers like the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC. While I never received formal education in computer science (thanks to my parents persuading me toward a more general high school education), the allure of programming never left. Back in Wrocław, Poland, proper computer science classes were only available at an all-boys technical school, but I ended up studying something completely different—spatial planning at the Faculty of Architecture at Wrocław Polytechnic.
I eventually dropped out and became a full-time graphic designer, a job I truly enjoyed for a number of years. However, I always had a curiosity for websites. Around 2010, I finally transitioned into web design, choosing WordPress as my platform of choice. As someone with a graphic design background, WordPress’s beautiful layouts and typography drew me in. I briefly considered Drupal, but I wasn’t a fan of its interface or the way its sites looked. Back in those days, websites were still primarily web pages—a far cry from today’s web apps.
Enter JavaScript (and CoffeeScript)
As websites became more interactive, I knew I had to dive deeper into the technology behind them—JavaScript. At first, JavaScript intimidated me. I only had a hobbyist’s background in programming, mostly in BASIC from the 90s. JavaScript’s syntax, with all its braces and colons, looked like a maze. Plus, the object-oriented nature of JavaScript was daunting.
But, unexpectedly, I found a project that changed everything. Around 2017, I was a big fan of the game No Man’s Sky. At the time, the game lacked a proper navigation tool, so a community member created a galactic map to help players meet in the vastness of its quintillions of star systems. I saw an opportunity to improve that map. This project required JavaScript, but it was also around that time that I discovered CoffeeScript—and I instantly fell in love.
CoffeeScript’s syntax is elegant and easy to read. It eliminates the clunky braces and colons, making it look more like the natural language we speak. What really sold me was its real-time syntax validation, which turned CoffeeScript into an excellent learning tool. In fact, CoffeeScript had several features that resembled what would later become ES6, so I felt ahead of the curve back then.
My experience with CoffeeScript
Looking back, I can see why CoffeeScript has its critics. The syntax can be a bit ambiguous at times, and it doesn’t compile to modern ES6 standards. However, during its heyday, CoffeeScript brought a refreshing simplicity to JavaScript, and it pushed developers like me into new syntax trends before they became mainstream.
Fast forward a few years, and I even wrote a Discord bot entirely in CoffeeScript for my Minecraft server, which I started during the pandemic lockdown. While I’ve been using ES6 for a while now, I’ve maintained the bot in CoffeeScript. I did try converting it to ES6 once, but the effort required was too time-consuming for a side project, so I decided to leave it as is.
Why CoffeeScript still matters (to me)
Now, in 2024, it might seem odd to still rely on CoffeeScript. Even when maintaining my Discord bot, which was entirely written in CoffeeScript, I sometimes feel like I’m taking a step backward. But honestly, the code looks clean, and the syntax feels natural to me. After trying to convert the bot’s source code to modern JS and failing, I realised there’s no harm in sticking with what works. CoffeeScript’s clear spacing and readable comments make the logic easy to follow, and that’s what matters most.
Of course, there are practical concerns. CoffeeScript’s future is pretty much doomed, and I’m not sure if future versions of macOS will continue to support it, though I’m hoping sure Homebrew will save the day and if not, there’s always Docker.
Conclusion
Even though CoffeeScript is rather niche, I still enjoy working with it from time to time – especially when developing algorithms or brainstorming ideas. There’s a certain charm to writing code in a syntax that feels closer to natural language. Maybe it’s just my preference for indentation-based languages, or maybe it’s the nostalgia of working with a tool that once felt revolutionary. Either way, CoffeeScript still has a place in my toolkit – at least for my personal projects.
Would I recommend it for a new project today? No, not really. But I still enjoy going back to a time when coding in JavaScript felt like pure joy.
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