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The Birth and Death of JavaScript [video]

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Re: The Birth and Death of JavaScript [video]

#211

Post by atmosx »

I have a question, because this video confused me. I don't have background to follow through all the assertions Gary Bernhardt did, but I'll try to watch it again, since it was fun.

I want to become a full stack developer. I can program and write tests in ruby, I can write applications using Sinatra and now I am learning rails. I bought a book to start learning JavaScript because it's the most popular language and basically will allow me to write modern applications. After I'm done with JS I'll probably jump into something else (rust, go, C, C++, Java, whatever helps do the staff I want).

But watching this video, I'm confused: I avoided CoffeScript because I read in their documentation that in order to debug the code you have to actually know JavaScript so I figured that the best thing to do is learn JS and then use an abstraction (i.e. Coffescript) and tools like AngularJS and Node.js... Is my approach wrong? :-/

Re: The Birth and Death of JavaScript [video]

#212

Post by tragic »

atmosx wrote: post #211

I have a question, because this video confused me. I don't have background to follow through all the assertions Gary Bernhardt did, but I'll try to watch it again, since it was fun. I want to become a full stack developer. I can program and write tests in ruby, I can write applications using Sinatra and now I am learning rails. I bought a book to start learning JavaScript because it's the most popular language and ba…

You can get around it to some extend with source maps and so on - just make sure you're generating them with whatever build process you use.

In practice, however, all that lovely Coffeescript syntax can easily trip you up; often something will compile successfully, but not to the 'right' Javascript. I wouldn't recommend CS until you get your head around the fundamentals of JS. In particular, CS does some very 'clever' things with the Javascript this object; I have certainly lost my scope at unexpected points in CS programs (often in loops). When you're optimising code, furthermore, you definitely need a strong sense of what JS code you'll get out the other end.

I'd recommend Reginald Braithwaite's Javascript Allonge as an overview of JS semantics - the material on scopes and environments is very useful, given that JS behaviour on that score is ... idiosyncratic. https://leanpub.com/javascript-allonge/read

Re: The Birth and Death of JavaScript [video]

#216

Post by j_horvat »

lelandbatey wrote: post #65

First, I very much love the material of the talk, and the idea of Metal. It's fascinating, really makes me think about the future. However, I also want to rave a bit about his presentation in general! That was very nicely delivered, for many reasons. His commitment to the story, of programming from the perspective in 2035, was excellent and in many cases subtle. His deadpan delivery really added to the humor; the fac…

I was lucky enough to hear Gary give this talk in January at CUSEC and it was even better in person. Everyone in the room was clearly hanging off his every word, the actual technical content was pretty insightful and his humour was spot on.

Re: The Birth and Death of JavaScript [video]

#218

Post by JoeAltmaier »

leichtgewicht wrote: post #217

I like that he mentions "integer". It is still very incredible how JavaScript can work well without a integer construct. Or threads and shared memory. Or bells and whistles.

Yes as a high-level scripting language it has many uses. You're never gonna write a kernel in it admittedly.

Re: The Birth and Death of JavaScript [video]

#219

Post by danabramov »

kangax wrote: post #199
robocaptain wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds so natural that I immediately started thinking I had actually been saying it wrong all these years.

fwiw, it's the way everyone in Russia pronounces it

Yup. I thought it was part if the joke (that in a few generations, we might pronounce old language names differently).

Re: The Birth and Death of JavaScript [video]

#220

Post by IgorPartola »

madeofpalk wrote: post #171
robocaptain wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds so natural that I immediately started thinking I had actually been saying it wrong all these years.

I think I'm going to adopt this new pronounciation.

This is actually how you say it in Russian. Try Google Translate.
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