Ivo Wetzel covers some of the quirks of the JavaScript language. Some of these cause subtle bugs, some overturn conventional wisdom. It covers toString on numbers. Covers the advanced JavaScript features such as prototypal inheritance, this, closures, anonymous wrappers, type-casting, automatic semicolon insertion and hoisting of function and variable declarations.
Angus Croll takes the reader step-by-step through some basic JavaScript code explaining what 'this' is in each step and why. He explains how 'this' depends on the execution context, and how it is manipulated by how JavaScript functions are called (or applied or bound with bind), and how Constructors create a new context.
PPK describes the this keyword as a reference to the owner of the function we are executing, or the object that a function is a method of. He then compares how attaching a function to an event in two different ways affects what the this keyword references.
Tim Caswell describes the JavaScript variable 'this', which is about current scope and current context. The only way to create scope in JavaScript is through function definitions, and in most cases the context is the receiver of the message (the object before the dot in the method call). He also talks about approaches to controlling what this references with call, apply and bind.
Jonathan Snook demonstrates when JavaScript passes by reference or passes by value. Essentially, primitive types are passed by value, objects are passed by reference. Passing functions however, makes things look like a pass by value if the this
keyword is being used in the code. Snook offers workarounds to this by passing objects so that the context is correct, or using the call()
function to ensure the context is correct.
Christian Heilmann compares the Object Literal to Douglas Crockford's Module pattern and finds that the Module pattern fixes a major problem of the object literal - the difficult choice of using this or fully qualified references to functions in the same block. Christian also covers the improvements in the Module Pattern, like the decluttering of the return block, which makes the resulting a little easier to work with.
First in a series of talks from Douglas Crockford about the JavaScript language. These talks cover the JavaScript language, from the history, the language, advanced features, platforms, standards and programming style. Talks about inheritance, using functions to build objects, closures, as well as the basic JavaScript syntax. Also covers code conventions. JavaScript is a language that requires discipline.