Lately the ideas for a parallel, shared memory JavaScript have begunto take shape. I’ve been discussing with variousJavaScript luminaries and it seems like adesign is starting to emerge. This post serves as a documentation ofthe basic ideas; I’m sure the details will change as we go along.User ModelThe model is that a JavaScript worker (the “parent”) may spawn anumber of child tasks (the “children”). The parent is suspended whilethe children execute, meaning that it will not process events or takeother actions. Once the children have completed the pare...

While reading Hacker News posts about JavaScript, I often come across the misconception that Ruby’s blocks are essentially equivalent to JavaScript’s “first class functions”. Because the ability to pass functions around, especially when you can create them anonymously, is extremely powerful, the fact that both JavaScript and Ruby have a mechanism to do so makes it natural to assume equivalence.In fact, when people talk about why Ruby’s blocks are different from Python‘s functions, they usually talk about anonymity, something that Ruby and JavaScript share...

A while back I stumbled upon a great post by Jean-Baptiste Queru. It describes the incredible depth of the modern technology stack. Layers upon layers of complex science, hardware, and software, each layer creating a simpler abstraction around the previous. This ultimately enables our paltry human brains to create amazing things that would otherwise be impossible (or really difficult). This is, in my opinion, the lifeblood of modern software development.For some reason, however, when it comes to front-end web development – meaning javascript – the stack is extremely shallow. Most...

One of the joys of programming is that no matter how simple a problem may seem there are always tons of ways to solve it. It can be good practice to go back and revisit fundamentals by solving simple problems with as many implementations as you can think of. In this post we'll explore approaches to basic iteration in JavaScript.This style of exercise is a good interviewing technique, too, because it's open ended and leads to good discussions. The focus isn't a tricky, wacky problem you're seeing for the first time ever, but bread and butter programming awareness, command, and comfort. It's a g...

During some interesting discussions on Twitter yesterday I found that there is now more than ever a confusion about JavaScript dependence in web applications and web sites. This is a never ending story but it seems to me to flare up ever time our browsing technology leaps forward. I encountered this for the first time back in the days of DHTML. We pushed browsers to their limits with our lovely animated menus and 3D logos (something we of course learned not to do again, right?) and we were grumpy when people told us that there are environments out there where JavaScript isn’t available....

Since its birth in 1994, Javascript has come a long way. Today it’s one of the most popular programming languages on the web because of high popularity of AJAX based web-applications. Also the rise of micro-frameworks such as jQuery (also Prototype, Moo Tools etc) which have reduced dramatically the complexity of code developers needed to write, it is well tested, has a ton of plug-ins, has a large development community and reduced development time.And lately even Server-Side JavaScript (SSJS) like Node.js which allows you to create high performance, real-time web applica...

Recently people presented arguments for and against using CoffeeScript. I felt the argument against was pointless and obviously wrong, but I couldn't figure out why, and I thought the counterargument for was kind of toothless and irrelevant. I've figured out the real issue.The real argument for CoffeeScript is that JavaScript is not really a language.Years ago I read something which explained, in my opinion, why Lisp has never achieved the mainstream adoption its passionate advocates believe it deserves. Lisp projects experience a degree of balkanization because everything is left wide open; y...

On this page I explain the two advanced event registration models:W3C’s and Microsoft’s. Since neither is cross–browser supported,their use is, for the moment, deprecated.W3C and Microsoft have both developed their own event registration modelto replace Netscape’straditional model. Though I’m notimpressed by the Microsoft model, W3C’s is very good, except for onecrucial vagueness.Unfortunately few browsers support it at the moment.W3CW3C’sDOM Level 2 Event specification pays careful attentionto the problems of the traditional model. It offers a ...