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Reintroducing JavaScript

Mar 07, 2006 10:09 AM
Tags: howto, javascript, programming

Simon Willison's 111-slide (!) refresher on JavaScript is great for developers who dismissed it as a toy the first time around and helpful for those of us who have been paying attention to the big picture at the expense of the details.

In 2006, JavaScript is more than form validation and ugly DHTML menus and, if you're a web developer who wants to keep up with modern practices, you need to re-learn it.

Plus, it has cool tips like this:

Convert any value to it's [sic] boolean equivalent by applying not twice:

!!"" is false
!!234 is true

Comments: Reintroducing JavaScript

"re-learn it"? You mean "learn it." Most things that web developers don't know today existed in JavaScript1.1, for crying out loud. Netscape implemented their DIG pipe (precursor to XMLHttpRequest) back in what, 1996? DHTML isn't new, and the only thing that makes it "slick" today is how people are using it, not a newly implemented functionality that didn't exist 10 years ago.

Posted by: Dossy Shiobara on March 7, 2006 1:57 PM | permalink

RTFA ... for once, this ain't about Ajax. :)

It's more like "OK, now that you're ready to take JavaScript seriously, here's what you need to know."

Posted by: Joe Grossberg on March 7, 2006 2:33 PM | permalink

I wasn't going to read through all 100+ slides, but since you asked so nicely ... :-P

I only got to something interesting on slide 66: arguments.callee - didn't know about that one. Everything else is pretty commonplace ... JavaScript actually makes me think of a odd blend of C and Ruby.

Posted by: Dossy Shiobara on March 7, 2006 3:10 PM | permalink

Well, then I guess it's just a refresher for you, Mr. Smarty-Pants

Posted by: Joe Grossberg on March 7, 2006 7:30 PM | permalink

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