Port80: Practical JavaScripting

This talk will focus on practical advice to improve your JavaScript. We’ll look at JavaScript optimisation, tools that do a lot of the work for you, ways to make your code more robust, manageable and how to test it. We’ll also look at the future of JavaScript, what we can expect in the near future and how these enhancements can help us write even better code.

Transcript

1. Practical JavaScripting
2. Me! University of Bath Computer Science Student Software Developer at Kainos Blogger at javascriptplayground.com Talker on upfrontpodcast.com Twitterer @Jack_Franklin
4. Free Stuff 5 Copies of "Beginning jQuery" to get rid of Tweet #port80jquery and I'll pick some randomly.
5. What we're not going to talk about Do NOT let me do my Welsh accent we won't discuss England letting Wales beat us at rugby
6. The Agenda Web Sites vs Web Apps Sensible JavaScript Writing Workflow & Tooling Don't get caught in the storm Book giveaway (Easy) Questions and (hopefully some) Answers
7. Web Sites vs Web Apps is there a difference?
9. I don't think there is any difference and that's a good thing
10. we're all building sites people visit, do something and leave stop trying to differentiate
11. differentiating web sites vs web apps is no good to anyone
12. a lot of people ignore new JS tools, methods or approaches because those are just for "web apps"
13. don't be so quick to discredit your code
14. Writing sensible JavaScript
15. I get to see a lot of JavaScript and people write some weird stuff
19. People put a lot of thought into CSS (OOCSS, SMACSS, etc) (and this is a good thing) But does the same happen with the JavaScript?
20. Too often people treat JavaScript like a black box of magic and throw everything into one file
21. Too often it's an after thought let's quickly add some jQuery to animate that button
22. "weeks of coding can save hours of planning"
23. Let's talk about jQuery
24. ditching jQuery has the time come?
25. jQuery 2 drops IE6, 7, 8 jQuery 1.X supports them
26. jQuery isn't going anywhere fast and the file size isn't that big...
27. Organise your code multiple JS files, modular approaches
28. organising your code is really simple lots of files and a bunch of script tags
29. or you can go further AMD approaches like Matt talked about look at RequireJS
30. learn how JavaScript works
31. bits of JavaScript will catch you out and even jQuery can't save you from that
32. the better you know JavaScript, the better you know jQuery Would you write SCSS without knowing CSS?
33. regular JS isn't that bad. Make an effort to improve your JS knowledge you can still use jQuery. Knowing JS means you'll use it better and appreciate it more learn.jquery.com
34. Tooling
35. don't dismiss tools out of hand but don't go crazy and use them all, either
36. The JS ecosystem has evolved a gazillionbillion* times over * needs attribution
37. you're not a real developer if you don't use the command line* * loljk.
38. Grunt! does everything. gruntjs.com
39. Testing Minifying & Building Validating Templating
40. you might not think your site needs {insert library here}
41. there are a lot of times when you think your solution is too basic to require any additional libraries / tools but any chance you get to make your life easier is worth taking
42. not getting caught in the storm
43. don't worry about using the newest of the new tools if you do this, you'll never get any work done
44. sure, when something new pops up, give it a quick look people (like me) will blog about them
45. find a workflow, set of tools and some of your favourite libraries that work for you stick with them
46. revisit every few months to see if something new has popped up
47. spot small things that take up too much time and solve them
48. Something takes you 5 minutes to do You spend an hour setting up that tool which makes that 5 minute thing a 1 minute thing everytime you do it you now save 4 minutes do that thing 15 times = your hour back
49. take time to improve and perfect your workflow mundane but important tasks should be effortless
50. the moment a mundane task takes considerable effort, you wont do it
51. build for small wins lots of small wins > one big win
52. we're all building web applications just some are a bit more complex than others
53. develop accordingly, but don't treat your JS like this black box of magic
54. and go make awesome
55. Books! I'm going to give 3 out now randomly via Twitter Which means I'll have 2 left. At the after party, come and find me and tell me your best joke. If I like it, you can have a copy. If I don't, you get to buy me a drink.* * not really. Twitter Draw
56. Stickers! Come and find me.
57. Questions? jackfranklin.co.uk @Jack_Franklin @upfrontpodcast / upfrontpodcast.com javascriptplayground.com tilvim.com github.com/jackfranklin toomanysoddingsideprojects.com* * not really