Category Archives: Code

The Factory Pattern in JavaScript

Posted on June 26, 2009 by Mike G.

We could also call this article, “JavaScript Constructors Considered Harmful.” I recall reading a post recently which describes factory methods as a best practice. I can’t tell you how thrilled this made me as I’ve been advocating this for years, … Continue reading →

Posted in Code, Design Patterns, JavaScript, Uncategorized | 8 Comments

Synchronous Execution in JavaScript

Posted on May 27, 2009 by Mike G.

Complex front-end web applications generally consist of many components which are initialized and configured at load time. What I’ve come to find out quite recently is that some browsers simply can’t handle too many things going on at once (eg: … Continue reading →

Posted in Code, Design Patterns, JavaScript | Leave a comment

Review: Learning Dojo by Peter Svensson

Posted on February 23, 2009 by Mike G.

… or How to Write a Good JavaScript Book It’s widely known that the vast majority of JavaScript books that exist are bad. Unfortunately, I have another one to add to the list: Learning Dojo by Peter Svensson. I fought … Continue reading →

Posted in Code, JavaScript, Opinion, Reviews | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

A Week in JavaScript Patterns: Lazy Function Definition

Posted on August 21, 2008 by Mike G.

Lazy Function Definition is a pattern of functional JavaScript programming, similar to Load Time Configuration. The key difference is that the final function value isn’t configured at load time, but rather upon the first invocation of the function. The Lazy … Continue reading →

Posted in Code, Design Patterns, JavaScript | Tagged , | 8 Comments

A Week in JavaScript Patterns: The Module

Posted on August 19, 2008 by Mike G.

The Module is a brilliant design pattern which demonstrates the elegance of the JavaScript language by exploiting closure (one of JavaScript’s most powerful features) to create private members. The Module makes use of Self-invocation making it useful as an application … Continue reading →

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A Week in JavaScript Patterns: Load Time Configuration

Posted on August 18, 2008 by Mike G.

Load time configuration is the process where a JavaScript application configures itself as it is being loaded. This pattern is most commonly found in libraries in which they configure themselves at load time to be optimized for a particular browser. … Continue reading →

Posted in Code, Design Patterns, JavaScript | Tagged , | 1 Comment

A Week in JavaScript Patterns: Self-invocation

Posted on August 17, 2008 by Mike G.

I would like to begin this series of posts with one of the most useful and commonplace patterns in my code. Arguably, this can be considered a feature of the JavaScript language rather than a design pattern; however, when considering … Continue reading →

Posted in Code, Design Patterns, JavaScript | Tagged , | 5 Comments

Ajax for PHP Developers

Posted on July 26, 2008 by Mike G.

Earlier this week I gave an Ajax presentation for NYPHP. It felt a little strange presenting a JavaScript topic to a bunch of PHP developers, but I made it come back to PHP by demonstrating a the latest Panda PHP … Continue reading →

Posted in Code, JavaScript, PHP, Talks | 1 Comment

JavaScript from Scratch: Parts Three and Four

Posted on June 29, 2008 by Mike G.

I’ve uploaded two additional talks which I recently gave covering the basics of events and application development in JavaScript. This continues on with the talks I added earlier this month. Part Three: Events | View | Upload your own Part … Continue reading →

Posted in Code, JavaScript, Talks | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Improving the Module

Posted on June 17, 2008 by Mike G.

Update: In my code example below, I make use of a self variable. This probably isn’t the best idea in hindsight since JavaScript reserves self as a secondary reference to window. I’m always fascinated by the JavaScript language. What impressed … Continue reading →

Posted in Code, Design Patterns, JavaScript | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments