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2010/09/01

First Pass on Javascript: The Good Parts


I read some of Douglas Crockford's JavaScript: The Good Parts on Safari, using the school's site license. I saw some of the talk videos on YouTube and Yahoo Video. I now have a copy on my desk.

I've even been putting some of my code into JSLint. It has a warning — JSLint will hurt your feelings — which is exactly right. I mean, ow!

I'll say more on this book the more I integrate it into my headspace. I've been getting serious about Javascript over the last few years, after over a decade of being vocally dismissive of it, because changes have made the languages run faster, as has Moore's Law. The first machines I did web development on would be seriously outclassed by first-generation iPhones. I take that back — even the second machines I did web development on are seriously outclassed by first-generation iPhones. And as a programmer getting serious about Javascript, I want my code to be serious, too, not just lame hack stuff. Which is where having JSLint comes in handy.

And where my issues start to come in.

You can see this as having a similar purpose as Damian Conway's Perl Best Practices and the connected Perl::Tidy, where you use the tool to outline the changes the book suggests you make. Except, Perl::Tidy gives you chapter and verse as to where to look up the dink and allow you to learn. As I put more code into JSLint, the more I wonder "Why is that?" and so far, I'm not finding the answers in The Good Parts.

Still, if you're a Javascript programmer, you can probably help yourself out a lot by getting this book.

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