lorempixum - placeholder images for every case 16 JavaScript Concepts JavaScript Professionals Must Know Well (Essential JavaScript Concepts for Modern JavaScript Development ) If you plan to work as JavaScript Professional, you must know some JavaScript concepts and JavaScript-related web-development technologies, particularly as a modern JavaScript developer. If you know the 16 concepts enumerated below, you have the skill necessary to build world-class modern JavaScript web applications, and you are set for the near future—0 to 3 years. I will expound on each of these sixteen concepts, and I am hopeful all of us will have become better JavaScript programmers by the time we get through all of them. I have completed most of the 16 concepts with just a few more to go, so keep reading and learning. I trust you have learned JavaScript properly or you already know JavaScript enough to build a simple JavaScript-only web application.
A re-introduction to JavaScript Why a re-introduction? Because JavaScript is notorious for being the world's most misunderstood programming language. It is often derided as being a toy, but beneath its layer of deceptive simplicity, powerful language features await. JavaScript is now used by an incredible number of high-profile applications, showing that deeper knowledge of this technology is an important skill for any web or mobile developer. It's useful to start with an overview of the language's history. Several months later, Microsoft released JScript with Internet Explorer 3. Because it is more familiar, we will refer to ECMAScript as "JavaScript" from this point on. Unlike most programming languages, the JavaScript language has no concept of input or output. Overview JavaScript is a multi-paradigm, dynamic language with types and operators, standard built-in objects, and methods. Let's start off by looking at the building blocks of any language: the types. And there are some built-in Error types as well. Numbers
Raphaël—JavaScript Library holmes.css - CSS Markup Detective What does it do? The holmes.css file will display either an error (red outline), a warning (yellow outline), or a deprecated style (dark grey outline) for flags such as: Missing required attributes on tags, such as name attributes on inputs (lots of these) Potentially improvable markup, such as links with href="#" Deprecated and Non-W3C Elements - see W3C.org's article on obselete tags Non-W3C Attributes - as above, just the most important ones since there are MANY Thanks to Anthony Mann, holmes now displays an informative error message when you hover over the element. Support for :after/::after on images is non-existent however in most browsers. How do I use it? Simply download a version of the CSS, minified or normal (with docs), and include a stylesheet link to it on your page. In terms of configuration, such as changing the flag colours: go nuts! Why should I use it? Browser Support Works 100% in Google Chrome 10+ Safari 5+ Opera 10+ Firefox 3.5+
JSbooks - free javascript books The Best Way to Learn JavaScript Learning something new is scary. For me, the biggest issue with picking up a new skill is that I don’t know what I don’t know. Given that, it’s often useful to find a plan for learning whatever you’re interested in. That’s what this post is: your blueprint, your roadmap, your plan of action for learning JavaScript! You don’t have to worry about finding the best resources, sorting out the bad ones, and figuring out what to learn next. It’s all here. JavaScript is the language of the browser. Before you actually begin learning JavaScript, take a minute to understand what it is and does. JavaScript is not jQuery, Flash, or Java. JavaScript is the language of the browser (not exclusively these days, though). One more note: you’ve heard about jQuery, which is probably the most widely-used JavaScript library. You might even have heard someone say that you should start with jQuery (or another library) and learn JavaScript after. A handful of good introductions, if I may: So, what can you build?
Font sizing with rem Determining a unit of measurement to size our text can be a topic of heated debate, even in this day and age. Unfortunately, there are still various pros and cons that make the various techniques less desirable. It's just a matter of which less-desirable is most desirable. There are two main techniques that are extolled: Size with pxSize with em Let's review these two approaches before I reveal the magical third. Sizing with px In the early days of the web, we used pixels to size our text. I, personally, have been of the camp that px-based layouts provide the consistency I prefer and users have enough tools available to adjust their view that accessibility is less of a concern. Sizing with em That whole inability to resize text in IE has been a continuing frustration. The technique modifies the base font-size on the body using a percentage. The problem with em-based font sizing is that the font size compounds. Sizing with rem But what pitiful browser support do we have to worry about?
Resources for Staying on Top of JavaScript Last year, I wrote about and recommended some great resources for getting good with andJavaScript. A year is a long time in Internet terms and I figured now was a good time for a refresh. JavaScript continues to explode in terms of adoption and being fully embraced, not only in the browser but also on the server. So it's about time we revisit the list and update it with good places to stay current. With JavaScript's continued adoption rate, there's been an explosion of books but from what I've seen, only a small percentage are offering new and interesting reading material. I'm keeping this one on the list because I honestly haven't seen a new book that so thoroughly covers the JavaScript language like Nicholas' does. There's no argument that leveraging good design patterns helps in building maintainable code. The best part is the Addy worked it out with O'Reilly to release this book under a Creative Commons license, meaning you can read it online for free or purchase the paperback. Dr.
Terse JavaScript 101 – part 2 Part one, posted last week, explored a few different ways of de-cluttering your JavaScript, and, in the process, making it more readable. Some developers don’t like the idea of using a language’s more idiosyncratic features because it does, potentially, make your code less readable in the eyes of those who haven’t learned the language properly. I think it’s still up for debate. If you haven’t checked out the “Truthy & Falsey” introduction then please do so before continuing. Looping It’s something we barely think about but JavaScript’s expressive diversity allows us to invent new patterns for looping. for (var i = 0; i < array.length; i++) {} This is conventional and will be known to developers coming from any language. The first improvement I usually make is to cache the length property of the array: for (var i = 0, l = array.length; i < l; i++) {} This doesn’t make it shorter, but it does make it more efficient, although marginally so… for (var i = -1, l = array.length; ++i < l;) {}