A guide to 2ality’s posts on the JavaScript language

This blog post gives an overview of the 2ality posts on language aspects of JavaScript. All of those posts have the label jslang. Consult the sitemap for a list of all guides.

Last date covered by this guide: 2012-08-25

Getting started

If you are just getting started with JavaScript, I recommend the following material:

• JS Central JavaScript resources (links, news)
• A quick overview of JavaScript [get a first impression of the language]
• The Past, Present, and Future of JavaScript [mini-ebook; free, but a name and an email address are required]

Basics

Variables, values:

• JavaScript values: not everything is an object
• Converting a value to string in JavaScript
• JavaScript variable scoping and its pitfalls
• JavaScript: converting any value to an object

Operators:

• Equality in JavaScript: === versus ==
• When is it OK to use == in JavaScript?
• What is JavaScript’s typeof operator used for?
• Improving the JavaScript typeof operator
• The void operator in JavaScript

Objects, properties, inheritance:

• JavaScript inheritance by example
• Prototypes as classes – an introduction to JavaScript inheritance
• Quick JavaScript tip: trailing commas inside an object literal
• JavaScript properties: inheritance and enumerability
• Private data for objects in JavaScript

Standard library:

• JavaScript’s JSON API
• JavaScript: an overview of the regular expression API
• Iterating over arrays and objects in JavaScript

Various syntactic constructs:

• JavaScript’s with statement and why it’s deprecated
• Automatic semicolon insertion in JavaScript

ECMAScript versions:

• ECMAScript: ES.next versus ES 6 versus ES Harmony [includes a history of ECMAScript versions]
• Major and minor JavaScript pitfalls and ECMAScript 6
• What’s new in ECMAScript 5
• JavaScript’s strict mode: a summary
• JavaScript: Why the hatred for strict mode?

Techniques

Objects, properties, inheritance:

• Exemplars: creating objects in JavaScript
• A JavaScript class pattern that starts with a function
• The Singleton pattern in JavaScript: not needed
• Uncurrying `this` in JavaScript

Values, operators:

• String concatenation in JavaScript
• Enums for JavaScript
• Fake operator overloading in JavaScript

Arrays:

• Apply and arrays: three tricks
• Spreading arrays into arguments in JavaScript
• JavaScript performance: Array.prototype versus []
• ECMAScript.next: Array.from() and Array.of()

Eval and meta-programming:

• Reflection and meta-programming in JavaScript
• Handing variables to eval
• Implementing a command line with eval in JavaScript

Miscellaneous

• Keyword parameters in JavaScript and ECMAScript.next
• Patterns for modules and namespaces in JavaScript
• Asynchronous programming and continuation-passing style in JavaScript

Advanced

Values, operators:

• Stricter equality in JavaScript

Arrays:

• JavaScript: sparse arrays vs. dense arrays
• Array.prototype.concat is not generic

Objects, properties, inheritance:

• The pitfalls of using objects as maps in JavaScript
• Properties in JavaScript: definition versus assignment
• Subtyping JavaScript built-ins
• A closer look at super-references in JavaScript and ECMAScript.next
• What’s up with the “constructor” property in JavaScript?
• Efficiently creating JavaScript objects: closures versus prototypes

Numbers:

• JavaScript’s two zeros
• Displaying numbers in JavaScript
• Integers and shift operators in JavaScript
• NaN and Infinity in JavaScript
• How numbers are encoded in JavaScript
• Working with large integers in JavaScript [algorithms for integer computation via strings]

Miscellaneous:

• What are the most popular JavaScript keywords?
• What is {} + {} in JavaScript?
• The multiple roles of JavaScript objects and arrays
• Why do some JavaScript methods have such long names?
• Movie titles and lines in JavaScript

Background

History, philosophy, etc.:

• JavaScript: how it all began
• Web technology stacks – from LAMP to Janos
• logo.js – JavaScript has a (semi-)official logo
• Explaining to non-programmers what JavaScript is
• JavaScript myth: JavaScript needs a standard bytecode
• Myth: JavaScript needs classes

Theory

• Currying versus partial application (with JavaScript code)
• Programming language variables: scope and extent
• ECMAScript 5 spec: LexicalEnvironment versus VariableEnvironment

Technology:

• What is the difference between a shim and a polyfill?
• What JavaScript would be like with significant newlines
• SourceMap on Firefox: source debugging for languages compiled to JavaScript [update: WebKit, too]
• Combining code editing with a command line

Various:

• Notes from the Fluent JavaScript conference [lists keynotes that you can watch on YouTube]
• test262 – ensuring that JavaScript implementations comply with the ECMAScript specification

Libraries

Underscore.js [all posts on Underscore]:

• A closer look at Underscore templates
• A closer look at _.extend and copying properties

Other:

• Lightweight JavaScript inheritance APIs
• es5-shim: use ECMAScript 5 in older browsers
• es6-shim – ECMAScript 6 functionality on ECMAScript 5

Tools

• JSHint – a JavaScript code quality checker
• An introduction to JSDoc
• Three JavaScript shells