4 ms·

JavaScript: The Good Parts

53 points by pkrumins 18y ago

sh1mmer 18y ago
The youtube video on Peteris' page doesn't seem to exist any more but the original is here: http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=630959 http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=630959 There is also a ton more stuff like this at: http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/theater/ http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/theater/ Disclaimer: I'm proud to work with the YUI team :)
- pkrumins 18y ago
  That's not quite the same video. The one I linked to is from a few weeks ago, when he gave a talk at Google. ps. the youtube video works for me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQVTIJBZook http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQVTIJBZook pps. someone changed my crazy title for this post, this one looks much better and shorter. thanks :)
  - sh1mmer 18y ago
    Sorry didn't work for me off the page. hm.
    - babo 18y ago
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQVTIJBZook http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQVTIJBZook is just fine for me.
    - sh1mmer 18y ago
      I figured it out. It's a bug with youtube player. If you try and skip to the middle using the timeline bar without pressing play first it says the video is no longer available.
acangiano 18y ago
The book discussed here is extremely thin. If you buy it, you should be able to read it over a weekend.
- tptacek 18y ago
  Another really thin book was K&R's The C Programming Language.
  - acangiano 18y ago
    From your response, I gather that you may have taken my comment the wrong way. Just to clarify, I mentioned the book's size, in an effort to point out that the book can be read quickly over the course of a weekend (that's what I did), which is a positive thing. Javascript: The Good Parts and K&R are a couple of shelfs apart in my bookcase, and I must say that the former is much thinner and above all a quicker read. K&R is awesome, but I don't expect anyone to get through it in a weekend.
    - tptacek 18y ago
      Wasn't sniping, sorry. I really liked this book.
- kailashbadu 18y ago
  Or if you are so pressed that an entire weekend is impossible, watch the 1 hour video. It’s worth it.
- willwagner 18y ago
  I loved that book for so many reasons, but one in particular is the appendices which cover the bad parts of JavaScript. Coming from a C++ background, I had a few WTF moments early on coming up to speed with JavaScript and it was a cathartic experience to know that I'm not the only one who finds certain aspects of JavaScript a little annoying (I'm talking to you, variable scoping rules). It's one of the first books I recommend for colleagues who want to really learn Javascript.
davidmathers 18y ago
"It came up with the idea of prototypal inheritance and dynamic objects itself." Hehe. Not itself, the language Self: http://research.sun.com/self/papers/papers.html http://research.sun.com/self/papers/papers.html
msie 18y ago
One bad part of JavaScript that really irks me: - Newlines get converted into semicolons. It seems that JavaScript is really forgiving of mistakes in the same way that browsers are really forgiving of malformed HTML.
- deleted 18y ago
  [deleted]
- babo 18y ago
  return { ok: false }; Have you seen this part of the video? That's a perfect example while adding semicolons is a bad thing.
  - inimino 18y ago
    So write that as any of: return {ok:false}; return { ok: false }; return( { ok: false }); The semicolon insertion feature isn't a "bad thing," just a matter of personal preference and something you have to be aware of.
    - joechung 18y ago
      No, it's a bad thing. It's a false economy that causes bugs.
    - olavk 18y ago
      Semicolon insertion is a bad thing, because it is unintuitive and may lead to subtle bugs. If the rule was straightfoward, like a newline always corresponds to an automatic semicolon, then it would be OK. Now the rule require you to have a pretty deep understanding of the language grammar, to determine when a newline changes the semantics. The intention was good: to optionally allow a more line-oriented syntax like Python, but it turns out that this just dot fit well with c-style syntax.
bobzimuta 18y ago
Anyone know of discussions or articles on what is wrong with the dom?
- ZitchDog 18y ago
  http://ejohn.org/blog/the-dom-is-a-mess/ http://ejohn.org/blog/the-dom-is-a-mess/
domdelimar 18y ago
Thank you very much for this link because due to your posting I found a little treasure of video tutorials on JavaScript. And it's just what the doctor pre-scribed (pun intended) with the nearing release of the Palm Pre and webOS. I've got a handful of ideas for IMHO great but simple apps and the possibility of me being actually able to do it fairly easily is very exciting... I've also got an idea for one not so simple game, already a proven success on desktop for years that wouldn't even require direct access to Palm's hardware. Unfortunately, I presume this would require much more real programming skills (not web programming skills I can provide) so we'll see what happens with that... And this game, with clever notification system that webOS sports would really excel on webOS...

53 points by pkrumins 18y ago

The youtube video on Peteris' page doesn't seem to exist any more but the original is here: http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=630959 http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=630959 There is also a ton more stuff like this at: http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/theater/ http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/theater/ Disclaimer: I'm proud to work with the YUI team :)

pkrumins 18y ago
That's not quite the same video. The one I linked to is from a few weeks ago, when he gave a talk at Google. ps. the youtube video works for me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQVTIJBZook http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQVTIJBZook pps. someone changed my crazy title for this post, this one looks much better and shorter. thanks :)
- sh1mmer 18y ago
  Sorry didn't work for me off the page. hm.
  - babo 18y ago
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQVTIJBZook http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQVTIJBZook is just fine for me.
  - sh1mmer 18y ago
    I figured it out. It's a bug with youtube player. If you try and skip to the middle using the timeline bar without pressing play first it says the video is no longer available.

acangiano 18y ago

The book discussed here is extremely thin. If you buy it, you should be able to read it over a weekend.

tptacek 18y ago
Another really thin book was K&R's The C Programming Language.
- acangiano 18y ago
  From your response, I gather that you may have taken my comment the wrong way. Just to clarify, I mentioned the book's size, in an effort to point out that the book can be read quickly over the course of a weekend (that's what I did), which is a positive thing. Javascript: The Good Parts and K&R are a couple of shelfs apart in my bookcase, and I must say that the former is much thinner and above all a quicker read. K&R is awesome, but I don't expect anyone to get through it in a weekend.
  - tptacek 18y ago
    Wasn't sniping, sorry. I really liked this book.
kailashbadu 18y ago
Or if you are so pressed that an entire weekend is impossible, watch the 1 hour video. It’s worth it.
willwagner 18y ago
I loved that book for so many reasons, but one in particular is the appendices which cover the bad parts of JavaScript. Coming from a C++ background, I had a few WTF moments early on coming up to speed with JavaScript and it was a cathartic experience to know that I'm not the only one who finds certain aspects of JavaScript a little annoying (I'm talking to you, variable scoping rules). It's one of the first books I recommend for colleagues who want to really learn Javascript.

davidmathers 18y ago

"It came up with the idea of prototypal inheritance and dynamic objects itself." Hehe. Not itself, the language Self: http://research.sun.com/self/papers/papers.html http://research.sun.com/self/papers/papers.html

msie 18y ago

One bad part of JavaScript that really irks me: - Newlines get converted into semicolons. It seems that JavaScript is really forgiving of mistakes in the same way that browsers are really forgiving of malformed HTML.

deleted 18y ago
[deleted]
babo 18y ago
return { ok: false }; Have you seen this part of the video? That's a perfect example while adding semicolons is a bad thing.
- inimino 18y ago
  So write that as any of: return {ok:false}; return { ok: false }; return( { ok: false }); The semicolon insertion feature isn't a "bad thing," just a matter of personal preference and something you have to be aware of.
  - joechung 18y ago
    No, it's a bad thing. It's a false economy that causes bugs.
  - olavk 18y ago
    Semicolon insertion is a bad thing, because it is unintuitive and may lead to subtle bugs. If the rule was straightfoward, like a newline always corresponds to an automatic semicolon, then it would be OK. Now the rule require you to have a pretty deep understanding of the language grammar, to determine when a newline changes the semantics. The intention was good: to optionally allow a more line-oriented syntax like Python, but it turns out that this just dot fit well with c-style syntax.

bobzimuta 18y ago

Anyone know of discussions or articles on what is wrong with the dom?

ZitchDog 18y ago
http://ejohn.org/blog/the-dom-is-a-mess/ http://ejohn.org/blog/the-dom-is-a-mess/

domdelimar 18y ago

Thank you very much for this link because due to your posting I found a little treasure of video tutorials on JavaScript. And it's just what the doctor pre-scribed (pun intended) with the nearing release of the Palm Pre and webOS. I've got a handful of ideas for IMHO great but simple apps and the possibility of me being actually able to do it fairly easily is very exciting... I've also got an idea for one not so simple game, already a proven success on desktop for years that wouldn't even require direct access to Palm's hardware. Unfortunately, I presume this would require much more real programming skills (not web programming skills I can provide) so we'll see what happens with that... And this game, with clever notification system that webOS sports would really excel on webOS...