JavaScript for Line of Business Applications

Generators are a new feature in ES6. You declare a generator function which returns generator objects g that can then be iterated using any of Array.from(g), [...g], or for value of g loops. Generator functions allow you to declare a special kind of iterator. These iterators can suspend execution while retaining their context. We already examined iterators in the previous article and how their .next() method is called once at a time to pull values from a sequence.

M. David Green demonstrates how you can start thinking functionally in JavaScript, by refactoring some all-too-common imperative code to a functional style.

Functional JavaScript doesn’t have to take over an entire project in order to add value. Learning a little about the functional approach can help guide some of the decisions you make as you build your projects, regardless of the way you prefer to structure your code. Learning some functional patterns and techniques can put you well on your way to writing cleaner and more elegant JavaScript regardless of your preferred approach.

mvstar-compare - A brief comparison of a few MV* front end frameworks

Scope

Documentation - How well do they document their API?
Learning curve - How closely does it adhere to current dev standards (how hard is it to learn)?
Performance - How big is it's footprint, and how quickly does it render?
Scalability - How easy is it to scale to potentially enormous factors?
Updates - How often do they update their codebase, and do they introduce API changes often?
Testing - How easy is it to get testing set up?
Roadmap - How supported will this framework be down the line?
Backing - Is this framework being backed by reputable company?

Cody Lindley explains why enterprise JavaScript developers still need to care about ES3 and strategies for developers who want to use ES5/ES6 features today

What is concurrency? How is it different from parallelism? JavaScript is single-threaded on the event loop, so how does its asynchrony fit into the mix?

These are great questions, but sadly, I think most JS developers are not really asking them enough. The concepts behind writing concurrent code are incredibly important, but we tend to only focus on the API provided to us by some library or framework. These APIs have a tremendous capability to shape our thoughts about the underlying functionalities, and often not in accurate or productive ways.

I want us to talk first about the concepts around concurrency before we focus on what we can do with some API or pattern. Don’t worry: following parts of this blog post series will talk more about APIs, if that’s what really gets you excited. But don’t skip over these concepts.

Using an object literal as a simple means to storing key-value pairs is common place within JavaScript. However, an object literal is not a true hash map and therefore poses potential liabilities if used in the wrong manner. While JavaScript may not offer native hash maps (at least not cross-browser), there is a superior alternative to object literals to capture the desired functionality without the pitfalls.

In JavaScript, functions are first-class entities: You can store them in data structures, pass them to other functions, and return them from functions. An amazing number of very strong programming techniques arise as a consequence of functions-as-first-class-entities. One of the strongest is also one of the simplest: You can write functions that compose and transform other functions.