JavaScript: The Good Parts

[jondissed]

In the 'bad' list, he forgot:

- Debugging closures. A call stack full of anonymous functions is a nightmare.

- IDEs all suck because intelligent code completion is impossible.

[captmcneil]

@jondissed The "code completion" issue for IDE's is really a problem. Crockford is principially right about JavaScript being superior to, let's say, Java or C#. But a language is so flexible, that you can't even write a good IDE for it, it's a bit overdone.

I like to call myself an acceptable/good JS programmer, but every time I wrote some JavaScript code, there is always the nagging doubt, that there is still a typo left and your code just works because the browser corrects so much.

[JavascriptHacker]













And the ugly .

[4joules]

thanks

[j3tzer]

I have just started learning javascript from common programming languages and this video make me easier to learn it =)

[evhwolfgang2003]

I love GoogleTalks. Thanks for posting this. I'm one of those people who learned PHP and though JavaScript would be way too easy to bother. Its not!

[mortensjoegren]

I disagree with the part that there is no love for JavaScript. I love working with JavaScript, I do hate the DOM-API but since I use jQuery that's not a problem.

[6580006247]

All browsers suck because programmers are stupid pathetic people. Never be a friend with a programmer. Never buy programs. Use cracks and serials. Fuck programmers.

[mortensjoegren]

@6580006247 Please start by not using an operating system, a web browser and especially stop using youtube, since they have all been made by those programmers you don't like.

[graceoverall]

@6580006247 Who do you think writes the cracks and serials? Erm... oh yeah, PROGRAMMERS!! Thief.

[heartoflanddotcom]

A master instructs. Thanks for the memories of the offices at 10101 N. De Anza. Down the street was Taligent. Sushi never tasted so sweet, knowing that you were miles above the Magic Cap, and Apple was right across the street.

[TheYeomanDroid]

Interestingly enough. Won't work on a Chromebook. :-D

[frizzell83]

"Umm" this is good video, "Umm" Doug whats your favourite word ?

[D3mi4n]

He sounds like Tom Hanks.

[sexntuna]

@D3mi4n No he doesn't.

[xExekut3x]

um um um um um um um um um etc....

[nerocritic]

"I now never intentionally fall-through in a switch statement."

This seems like a total non-sequitur. The problem he's referring to came from *accidentally* falling through in a switch statement, not intentionally falling through.

[Trunks7j]

Lua is gaining popularity and uses prototype-based inheritance.

[mrbinky3000]

How many times did he smack his microphone? 6? 7?

[R1e2v3oOf]

block { } at 30:42

[sbdwch]

Awwwww. Crock just wants to be loved !

(Around the three minute mark)

[aromanstuff]

ROFL! Was anyone else kicking themselves hard when he spoke about how JS is the only language people start using without actually learning it? He fucking nailed me on the head right there! Brilliant.

[CronekorkN]

@aromanstuff: That single statement made we watch the hole presentation ;)

[TantleRur]

Great talk! I've done a lot of JS programming and I learned some good stuff. However, I couldn't help thinking to myself the whole time, "If he hits that microphone one more time, I'm going to scream!"

[JusticeVSpropaganda]

and as to programming...

I hated them all: C C++ and Java..

[JusticeVSpropaganda]

poor lecturer, will need a good massage after the lesson... couldn't they give him a higher desk? :)

anyway: regards from Israel,

and you are invited to my channel if you want to know what really happens in Israel and the global implications

[BilalAhmadMalik]

I lost used javascript in 2001.But only for things which was not anything serious and was to hard to do in Java.

I remember one guy from the project called Steve was amazing with this scripting language.

But after listening to this talk to day.I am thinking to revisit the language.

[hellbound108RS]

I don't think ALL java applets are crap, maybe just a 17 year old opinion but maybe some truth to it?

[ThunderAppeal]

I find it more than quite amusing that google will go out of its way to shun microsoft (which I can not disagree with) because microsoft has serious design flaws that cause security issues. But at the same time wholly endorses javascript which has gaping security holes just asking to be taken advantage of.

Just more proof that the people at google are not as smart as people on the outside would like to claim they are.

[ThunderAppeal]

@ThunderAppeal But I suppose sergey brin being from the former soviet union and knowing what living in a hypocritcal fasicst state is like decided to bring that knowledge and insight in to running a company in America.

Hooray for democracy.

[Nyuszika7H]

24:50

[ThunderAppeal]

When he said: "And finally from Perl we get a really horrendus regular expression syntax." I can sense he lost the audience and they were all dying to scream at him to tell him 'YOURE WRONG DOUG!!'

[ThunderAppeal]

Javascript is not held in very good esteem. Well for very good reason Doug.

[Zuberguber105]

I like JavaScript but this guys book was just the worst thing I've ever read.

[captmcneil]

@Zuberguber105 And why is that? What's wrong with it?

[efxqxtyjzbl]

@captmcneil

I'm not OP but I didn't really like it either. It's not the worst thing ever but not the best either. Thing that bothered me the most is that he does everything via his own wrapper functions, so instead of thinking how JS works you also have to remember how Crowford's wrapper work. I suppose that's ok if you take your time with the book, but I already know JS and was mainly hoping to skim it for good ideas and patterns.

I do love his talks and have learned much from them.

[captmcneil]

@efxqxtyjzbl Fair point. I use the book mainly to look random stuff up. I use it mainly when I am unsure whether a certain idea is stilistically good or bad. I think I like it because I always found an answer to my question, even though it's only 140 pages and because of the OO patterns. I do admit he is very specific there, and if you already have your own idea on that, it must feel dogmatic. I prefer a reasonable dogmatic and precise approach, and make up my mind about it later.

[CarMoves]

@Zuberguber105 -- gotta have an IQ above 99

[kyleisreallycool]

JavaScript SUCKS!

[erikindie]

@kyleisreallycool

That's because you don't know JavaScript.

6 months ago I had the same feeling as you do, too. But know I think it's a grace to have such a powerful langauge working on the front-end (and also the server-side, too, JS.node)

[CarMoves]

@kyleisreallycool -- ... says the unemployed programmer

[ThunderAppeal]

@kyleisreallycool I agree, the javascript 'compiler' (interpreter) is single threaded and its memory data structures are completely different from the actual browsers that the scripts run on. All of which explain why javascript is such a resource hog. While I should be surprised the big push that google is making with javascript I am not entirely. Considering the behemoth company that google really it is takes a lot of trained monkeys to write the code they do.

[RWOverdijk]

Great great talk.... Looking forward to more...

[maarlin]

3:34 It's the only language that I'm aware of that people feel that they don't need to learn it before they start using it.

[ThunderAppeal]

@maarlin Which explains why there is so much crappy code out there in the world. Javascript or not.

[palladinate]

14 people are missing their good parts

[RWRobbo]

quite a few people losing hair in the audience

[1984slash]

@RWRobbo JavaScript will do that to you

[abiezerm]

@RWRobbo LOL

[runeguldberg]

This is my favorite . This is great talk. Though I dont know what Javascript is at all.

[5estados]

@runeguldberg so why is your favorite, moron?

[Symmetriq]

I've watched this talk four times, and get something new out of it every time. This should be required viewing for anyone writing JavaScript.

[elisei00]

VBSCRIPT IS BETTER.

[pinhopro]

@elisei00 lol

[tzankich]

This is one of my favorite youtube videos ever. It's kind of funny too because the speaker sounds so much like Bob Newhart and has a similarly dry sense of humor I really appreciate. But the content is what really makes it so great.

[rax313]

this is a great talk even though I am new to Javascript

[sergiodnila]

He said that is scheme with c syntax, but, javascript dont have macros like those in the lisp family, defmacro (cl) and define-syntax, which are code transformations, not just code (in a string) evaluation with the eval() function. Scheme got eval and macros.

Yet is a good talk.

[TheVesan]

94k + people have unlimited internet

[baeritukaez]

@TheVesan

I do.

[TangerineTux]

Looks like he doesn’t know the difference between strong and static typing. :/

Maybe because JavaScript happens to have neither.

[captmcneil]

@TangerineTux I am guessing here, but isn't strong typing just the fact that there is such a thing as type safety, and static typing the fact that you have to define your types at compile time? If so, what difference does it do to the points he makes?

I have to admit, I know nothing about the definitions (I'm a Java/.NET-Programmer, and no linguist/computer scientist - I am just excited by such things as lambda), but I ask because I think I don't get what part of the talk you're referring to.

[foozy12]

DAYUMN

1:03:47

DAYUUUUMN

[Kam3k]

The closure version of digit_name doesn't work for me, calling digit_name(3) just returns a function which Is what I'd expect looking at that code. To get the name you'd have to do digit_name()(3) i.e. call the returned function. Can anyone explain how that is supposed to work?

[bsznm]

@Kam3k in the closure version there is a pair of parentheses after the function definition, which immediately executes the outer function and assigns the result to the variable. you probably missed them when you were typing it up.

[ABCDwp]

@Kam3k

You missed the () at the very end of the declaration of digit_name: notice that it ends in "}();" not "};", which calls that closure immediately and stores the result in digit_name.

[11889music]

Bookmark: 11:45

[zlatantomov]

variable === undefined??? That is crap.

What if I defined variable called undefined = variable?

I expected someone who knows what he is talking about.

[aliencodemaster]

javascript:R=23; x46=46; x46=46; x46=46; x46=.46; x46=46; x46=46; x46=46; x46=46; x46=46; x46=46; DI=document.images; DIL=DI.length; function A(){for(i=0; i-DIL; i++){DIS=DI[ i ].style; DIS.position='absolute'; DIS.left=(Math.sin(R*x46+i*x46­+x46)*x46+x46)+"px"; DIS.top=(Math.cos(R*x46+i*x46+­x46)*x46+x46)+"px"}R++}setInte­rval('A()',46); void(46);

[jamin2288]

really great talk - Crockford has also done a great series of javascript tutorials on video.yahoo.com - also mp4 for download on kiwi.kz :) - his book with the same title as this talk is well worth getting ahold of whatever level u'r at coding-wise.

[thekasfamily]

how could i download this video cuz its very tall

[iferio]

vbscript is better

[jtnix]

Umm, now I know where Resig, umm, learned his speaking style.

[24oscar24]

i fukken love google tech talks.

[cs2dfan]

i watched the whole thing o_o.

[1aDemokrat]

Na gut ich habe nichts zu verheimlichen, bitte, wenn es zu was beiträgt.

[krxlprnft]

How can I switch off the damn captions? They are distracting like hell!

[skmn07]

nice video

[captmcneil]

the "style isn't subjective" part really cracks me up every time

[drlex]

JSLint slapped me badly.

[tiangolo]

Very helpful! Explains why some things of JavaScript are as strange as they are and how one should use them.

[awesome11991]

lol half the guys in the audience are balding

[hiddan356]

lol hahahxd wth,,

[punkaddict02]

wow i will not ever watch this google is actually good thats my last words

[tuleo554]

lexical variables or "block scope" as he refers to it here is the main thing javascript really really should have!

[fizzlesaw]

Try this out in a javascript interpreter. You can replace print with alert if you want to run in a browser:

[azsrathud]

Google owns youtube.

[izarotade]

how can u make video so long??

[RobKohr]

You have to be someone that google worships.

[xXdaveXsuperstarXx]

1 hour is super long.

[arunpstvm]

Partner videos can be longer than the normal 10 mins . I dont know what it takes for you to be a partner with youtube but am sure if you become one, you can post really long videos.

[vincentws03]

Google is more than a partner though....

[UloPe]

Very nice. Interestingly every feature he mentions as "good" is also a feature in python.

[roeltz]

Can you get python to run on my browser? I think you got a bad comparision

[tuleo554]

I didnt realise Python could be used for client side script either, how widely is it supported by browsers?

[hobolooter]

Whats your point? So what if its a feature in Python, that doesn't negate the assertion that its a good feature.

[UloPe]

Whats _your_ point? I was merly observing that all those things have been in python for quite some time.

[enos76]

I love how everybody seems to feel guilty at 59:00 when Crockford says "it's easy to make things bigger, it's harder to make things better" ;-)

[revolutionize017]

no HD?

[ZerqTM]

Love this book!

It should be obligatory reading for everyone who studies webdevelopment.

This was an eye opening speech.

[dowling1981]

Better than Tim Collins' speech?

[mysweetgb]

is tim collins's speech on javascript? where can i see it, youtube search only yields war speeches and random stuff...

[dowling1981]

Have you tried googling it?

[mysweetgb]

yeah i tried googling tim collins javascript speech and searching videos and all that comes up is colonel tim collins or musicians or nonsense. can you provide a link?

[dowling1981]

But the speech itself is on youtube, ken?

[broundtown]

wow 1:03:47 sec!! its bad its long time but i dont try to bother

[dbBrother]

Great talk...Great book...Rock On!

[hazhuz]

Very interesting. javascript is the gray area of the client side, and i like it a lot.

Waiting for next week's talk about the new features from FireBug.

Tweet ya'll later,

@heziabrass

[tpreagan]

This kind of credible certainty is rare and very valuable. Excellent talk.

[DevelX666]

Very nice... I've bought the book while watching.

[alfredogangsta]

Great!

Um.. whats with the 'floating Crockford' that starts at 3:45?

[w008jdt]

I found this very interesting, and even helpful. Im taking computer science and i was dreading my first programing class because it was all on jjavascript