066 JSJ Transitioning to JavaScript

Panel Joe Eames (twitter github blog) Merrick Christensen (twitter github) Charles Max Wood (twitter github Teach Me To Code Rails Ramp Up) Discussion 01:10 - Making the transition from one primary language to JavaScript 01:30 - Merrick’s Experience ActionScript 03:32 - Joe’s Experience .NET Microsoft 07:46 - Moving from C# to JavaScript Misconceptions 09:25 - JavaScript Misconceptions 10:59 - Chuck’s Experience Ruby on Rails 14:25 - Rails and JavaScript Avoidance 15:25 - Microsoft and JavaScript Avoidance 16:58 - JavaScript Development in General Browsers and Problems 23:38 - Libraries and Tools 044 JSJ Book Club: Effective JavaScript with David Herman Effective JavaScript by David Herman 24:45 - Code Structure 27:03 - node.js 28:00 - Learning core concepts behind JavaScript 29:11 - Understanding Clojures, Scoping & Context 29:53 - Testing 31:35 - Deviating off the common path 33:10 - Idiomatic JavaScript Picks Dart (Merrick) ES6 Plans (Merrick) Defiance (Joe) America's Got Talent (Joe) StarCraft II World Championship Series (WCS) (Joe) Continuum (Chuck) Fringe (Chuck) CleanMyMac (Chuck) Book Club JavaScript Allongé with Reginald Braithwaite!  He will join us for an episode to discuss the book on August 1st. The episode will air on August 9th. Next Week Testem with Toby Ho Transcript CHUCK:  Yeah, I can pretend I’m getting better at JavaScript. [Hosting and bandwidth provided by the Blue Box Group. Check them out at BlueBox.net.]  [This episode is sponsored by Component One, makers of Wijmo. If you need stunning UI elements or awesome graphs and charts, then go to Wijmo.com and check them out.]  [This podcast is sponsored by JetBrains, makers of WebStorm. Whether you’re working with Node.js or building the frontend of your web application, WebStorm is the tool for you. It has great code quality and code exploration tools and works with HTML5, Node, TypeScript, CoffeeScript, Harmony, LESS, Sass, Jade, JSLint, JSHint, and the Google Closure Compiler. Check it out at JetBrains.com/WebStorm.] CHUCK:  Hey everybody, and welcome to Episode 66 of the JavaScript Jabber Show. This week on our panel, we have Joe Eames. JOE:  Hi there. CHUCK:  And Merrick Christensen. MERRICK:  Hey guys. CHUCK:  I’m Charles Max Wood from DevChat.TV. And this week, we’re going to be talking about, I think it’s kind of a blend of making the transition from one primary language to JavaScript, it usually happens through web development, and some of the mistakes that people make when their primary language is not JavaScript. Let’s go ahead and get started. Merrick, you’re kind of the expert guy that I always look at and go, “Man, he’s awesome at JavaScript.” So, I’m wondering, did you start out at JavaScript or did you come in from somewhere else? MERRICK:  Oh, that’s really nice of you, man. I actually started out with ActionScript. I really loved Flash developments, but it’s the same thing, really. They’re both based off of ECMAScript. So, I guess you could say I’ve always done JavaScript. JOE:  So, ActionScript is nearly identical to JavaScript? MERRICK:  Well, not anymore. ActionScript 3 developed classes and they typed it and they did some interesting things to make it more of a full-featured language. It’s got more [inaudible] than JavaScript now, I think. But I ended up getting into JavaScript when I was like 17 or so. I came across the MooTools framework and ever since then, it’s been all JavaScript all the time. CHUCK:  You’re pretty young. Wasn’t that last year? [Laughter] MERRICK:  Close. No, about six years, five years of JavaScript. JOE:  You’re also, though, like a real student of languages. You love studying other languages. MERRICK:  I love programming languages, yeah. JOE:  I think you’re a pretty funny, not necessarily unique,