2013-02

Perl and Python influences in JavaScript

[2013-02-24] esnext, dev, javascript, jslang
If you search the Mozilla Central code base for the texts "Perl" and "Python" (don’t ignore case) then the comments mention what methods have been borrowed from those languages. The paths mentioned below are relative to /js/src/.
[Inspiration: a blog post by Ziyun Fei.]

Link-friendly content

[2013-02-20] blogging, publishing, computers
Have you published a blog post or a GitHub project? This document gives tips for making your content appealing to link to. They are based on things I noticed while collecting material for the JavaScript Weekly email newsletter. The tips should also make your content more appealing to “normal” readers.

asm.js: closing the gap between JavaScript and native

[2013-02-16] jsfuture, dev, javascript
Update 2013-12-30:

asm.js defines a subset of JavaScript that can be compiled to fast executables. It has been created at Mozilla by David Herman, Luke Wagner and Alon Zakai. According to the specification, “[asm.js] effectively describes a safe virtual machine for memory-unsafe languages like C or C++.” This blog post describes how asm.js works, it is based on the specification.

The Edge 2013 videos are online

[2013-02-13] dev, webdev, video
Edge 2013 was a web development conference that took place on February 9, 2013, in London. Its approach was different from most conferences. Quoting the website:
Edge is a different kind of conference, for developers with experience to share, who want to see and bring improvements to the web platform. Our emphasis is on creating a good environment for productive debate and discussion, rather than presenting the experiences of a single speaker.

Each themed session is an hour long, and starts with a maximum 10 minute talk by an expert in that topic, outlining the current state of the platform in that area. [...] The remainder of the session will be given over to an open but structured discussion, with a professional moderator and a panel of seasoned developers who have in-depth knowledge of the subject. [...]

Session participants will include [...] a notetaker to record the discussion so we can share it on the web later.

JavaScript’s regular expressions are more fun with XRegExp

[2013-02-12] dev, javascript, jslib, jslang
Reminder: As soon as your JavaScript regular expressions become more complicated, you should probably use Steven Levithan’s XRegExp library. The cool thing about XRegExp is that it internally compiles its extended regular expressions to normal regular expressions, meaning that they are fast. Let’s look at some of XRegExp’s highlights, quoted from the XRegExp website.

Learning JavaScript via other languages

[2013-02-06] dev, javascript, jslang
Looking back on my life, three programming languages prepared me well for JavaScript (which has some challenging aspects):

JavaScript: fixing categorization

[2013-02-03] dev, javascript, jslang
Categorizing values in JavaScript is quirky. This blog post explains the quirks and one approach to fixing them. To understand everything, it helps to be familiar with how values are categorized in JavaScript. If you aren’t, consult [1].

2013-01

parseInt() doesn’t always correctly convert to integer

[2013-01-29] numbers, dev, javascript, jsint, jslang
In JavaScript, all numbers are floating point. Integers are floating point numbers without a fraction. Converting a number n to an integer means finding the integer that is “closest” to n (where “closest” is a matter of definition). You might think that parseInt() performs this task, but it doesn’t. At least, not always.

JavaScripts 12 größte Fallgruben

[2013-01-27] dev, javascript, deutsch, jslang
[Dieser Blogpost ist die Langversion eines Artikels im CHIP Web Design 2013.]

JavaScript ist eigentlich eine recht kompakte Sprache. Wenn es nur nicht all diese Fallgruben gäbe... Dieser Artikel erklärt die 12 größten und wie man am besten mit ihnen umgeht. Zur Lektüre werden grundlegende JavaScript-Kenntnisse vorausgesetzt. Wir halten uns an die aktuelle Version von JavaScript, ECMAScript 5.

Web development: 2012 and forward

[2013-01-22] dev, html5, webdev
Functionn is a blog on open source web development. Today, they published an interview with me and several other people (including DailyJS’s Alex R. Young) covering various web-development-related topics. They asked the following questions: