> So it's fast and well-known which makes it desirable even if it is full of warts and has been extended far beyond it's original goals.
Some traits it shares one of the most successful languages ever, C. Another shared trait is that it's almost everywhere: your browser can run it, so the only other thing you need to experiment is a text editor (and some documentation). Maybe other languages are better (Lua, Ruby), but JavaScript is just more convenient.