Is JavaScript
a Programming Language?

// ─── JavaScript doing things "scripting languages" supposedly can't ───

// 1. SYSTEMS-LEVEL: OS signals
import process from 'node:process';
process.on('SIGTERM', () => console.log('Graceful shutdown'));

// 2. NETWORKING: Raw TCP socket server
import net from 'node:net';
net.createServer(s => s.pipe(s)).listen(3000);

// 3. CRYPTO: RSA key generation
import { generateKeyPairSync } from 'node:crypto';
const { privateKey } = generateKeyPairSync('rsa', { modulusLength: 4096 });

// 4. CONCURRENCY: True multi-threading
import { Worker, isMainThread } from 'node:worker_threads';
if (isMainThread) new Worker(import.meta.url);

// 5. MACHINE LEARNING: Inference in pure JavaScript
import * as tf from '@tensorflow/tfjs-node';
const model = await tf.loadLayersModel('file://./model/model.json');
// → ML inference in Node.js. No Python required.

// ── ES2026 Features ──

// Decorators (ES2026)
class Config {
  @readonly
  API_URL = 'https://api.example.com';
}

// Explicit Resource Management
function processFile(path) {
  using handle = openFile(path); // auto-closed on scope exit
  return handle.read();
}

// Iterator Helpers — lazy operations
const result = [1,2,3,4,5].values()
  .filter(x => x % 2 === 0)
  .map(x => x * 10)
  .toArray(); // [20, 40]

// Object.groupBy (ES2026)
const byDept = Object.groupBy(people, p => p.dept);