Discussion on answer by odinchess.com: Why don’t chess engines use Node.js?

I'm not even sure that C++ is "more difficult to write" than JS. It's complex, yes, but at least it's logical. There are so many weird implicit conversions in JS that I find it really hard to write.

@Peter-ReinstateMonica if you were trying to program in C++ like in Java (i.e. heavy use of virtual calls, huge inheritance trees, lot's of indirection), then sure (although the choice of the compiler also matters). However, this is not really how anyone sane writes a performance-sensitive code.

@pulsar512b Assembly is only faster if you know how to do your own optimization. It's a rare person who knows how to do their own optimization in assembly.