Responsible JavaScript

I’m going to kick the new year off with a 10 part series that I call “Responsible JavaScript.”

Most professional JavaScript programmers are well aware of the “bad” parts of JavaScript. We’re told to avoid them at all costs and our programs will be better as a result. For an in-depth overview of the bad parts of JavaScript, check out Doug Crockford’s JavaScript: The Good Parts. In addition to the bad parts, there are piles of other best practices which we’re told to strictly adhere to (no globals, eval is evil, …).

While all of these mantra’s are wise words to live by, it’s important to understand exactly why these best practices exist. Through that understanding, we can even find responsible ways to make use of some of these forbidden areas in our programs.

So without further ado, here is my list of focus points (in no particular order):

1. Part 1: Globals
2. Part 2: Namespaces
3. Part 3: Prototype Modification
4. Part 4: Using Factories
5. Part 5: Using ‘this’
6. Part 6: Incrementing and Decrementing
7. Part 7: Using Switch
8. Part 8: Testing Equality
9. Part 9: Using eval
10. Part 10: The $ function

Keep checking back here, I’ll be updating these daily. Also, if you’re in NYC, I’ll be presenting on these and a few other areas next week at the Refresh NYC January Meeting.