JavaScript:

The Good Parts

Douglas Crockford
Yahoo! Inc.
http://www.crockford.com/codecamp/
The World's Most Popular
Programming Language
 The World's Most Popular
Programming Language

The World's Most Unpopular

Programming Language
A language of many contrasts.
 The broadest range of
programmer skills of any
programming language.

From computer scientists

to cut-n-pasters
and everyone in between.
It is the language that people use
without bothering to learn it first.
 Complaints
• "JavaScript is not a language I know."
• "The browser programming experience is
awful."
• "It's not fast enough."
• "The language is just a pile of mistakes."
Hidden under a huge steaming pile
of good intentions and blunders is
an elegant, expressive
programming language.

JavaScript has good parts.

JavaScript is succeeding very well
in an environment where Java was
a total failure.
 Influences
• Self • Java
prototypal inheritance syntax
dynamic objects conventions
• Scheme • Perl
lambda regular expressions
loose typing
 Bad Parts
• Global Variables
• + adds and concatenates
• Semicolon insertion
• typeof
• with and eval
• phony arrays
• == and !=
• false, null, undefined, NaN
 Transitivity? What's That?
• '' == '0' // false
• 0 == '' // true
• 0 == '0' // true
• false == 'false' // false
• false == '0' // true
• false == undefined // false
• false == null // false
• null == undefined // true
• " \t\r\n " == 0 // true
value = myObject[name];
if (value == null) {
alert(name + ' not found.');
}

Two errors that cancel each other out.

value = myObject[name];
if (value === undefined) {
alert(name + ' not found.');
}
 Good features that interact badly
• Objects can inherit from other objects.
• Functions can be members of objects.
• for..in statement mixes inherited functions
with the desired data members.
 for in is troublesome
• Design question: Should for..in do a shallow
skim or a deep dredge?
• Decision: Deep dredge. The programmer must
explicitly filter out the deep members.
• Except: They didn't tell anybody!
• Consequence: Lots of confusion about how to
use for..in.
 for in is troublesome
• Better Decision: Don't release the language
broadly until we have enough experience to
have confidence that we made the right choice.
• Historical Context: Getting it right at Netscape
wasn't an option.
 Bad Heritage
• Blockless statements
if (foo)
bar();
• Expression statements
foo;
• Floating point arithmetic
0.1 + 0.2 !== 0.3
• ++ and --
• switch
 Good Parts
• Lambda
• Dynamic Objects
• Loose Typing
• Object Literals
 Inheritance
• Inheritance is object-oriented code reuse.
• Two Schools:
• Classical
• Prototypal
 Prototypal Inheritance
• Class-free.
• Objects inherit from objects.
• An object contains a link to another object:
Delegation. Differential Inheritance.
var newObject =
Object.create(oldObject);
newObject oldObject
__proto__
 Prototypal Inheritance
if (typeof Object.create !== 'function') {
Object.create = function (o) {
function F() {}
F.prototype = o;
return new F();
};
}
 new
• The new operator is required when calling a
Constructor function.
• If new is omitted, the global object is
clobbered by the constructor.
• There is no compile-time or run-time warning.
 Global

var names = ['zero', 'one', 'two',

'three', 'four', 'five', 'six',
'seven', 'eight', 'nine'];

var digit_name = function (n) {

return names[n];
};

alert(digit_name(3)); // 'three'
 Slow
var digit_name = function (n) {
var names = ['zero', 'one', 'two',
'three', 'four', 'five', 'six',
'seven', 'eight', 'nine'];

return names[n];
};

alert(digit_name(3)); // 'three'
 Closure
var digit_name = (function () {
var names = ['zero', 'one', 'two',
'three', 'four', 'five', 'six',
'seven', 'eight', 'nine'];

return function (n) {

return names[n];
};
}());
alert(digit_name(3)); // 'three'
 A Module Pattern
var singleton = (function () {
var privateVariable;
function privateFunction(x) {
...privateVariable...
}
return {
firstMethod: function (a, b) {
...privateVariable...
},
secondMethod: function (c) {
...privateFunction()...
}
};
}());
 Module pattern is easily
transformed into a powerful
constructor pattern.
 Power Constructors
• Make an object.
• Object literal
• new
• Object.create
• call another power constructor
 Power Constructors
• Make an object.
• Object literal, new, Object.create, call
another power constructor
• Define some variables and functions.
• These become private members.
 Power Constructors
• Make an object.
• Object literal, new, Object.create, call
another power constructor
• Define some variables and functions.
• These become private members.
• Augment the object with privileged methods.
 Power Constructors
• Make an object.
• Object literal, new, Object.create, call
another power constructor
• Define some variables and functions.
• These become private members.
• Augment the object with privileged methods.
• Return the object.
 Step One
function myPowerConstructor(x) {
var that = otherMaker(x);
}
 Step Two
function myPowerConstructor(x) {
var that = otherMaker(x);
var secret = f(x);
}
 Step Three
function myPowerConstructor(x) {
var that = otherMaker(x);
var secret = f(x);
that.priv = function () {
... secret x that ...
};
}
 Step Four
function myPowerConstructor(x) {
var that = otherMaker(x);
var secret = f(x);
that.priv = function () {
... secret x that ...
};
return that;
}
 Closure
• A function object contains
A function (name, parameters, body)
A reference to the environment in which it was
created (context).

• This is a very good thing.

 Style Isn't Subjective
block block {
{ ....
.... }
}

• Might work well in • Works well in

other languages JavaScript
 Style Isn't Subjective
return return {
{ ok: true
ok: false };
};

• SILENT ERROR! • Works well in

JavaScript
 Style Isn't Subjective
return
{
ok: false
};
 Style Isn't Subjective
return; // semicolon insertion
{
ok: false
};
 Style Isn't Subjective
return;
{ // block
ok: false
};
 Style Isn't Subjective
return;
{
ok: false // label
};
 Style Isn't Subjective
return;
{ // useless
ok: false // expression
}; // statement
 Style Isn't Subjective
return;
{
ok: false; // semicolon
}; // insertion
 Style Isn't Subjective
return;
{
ok: false;
}; // empty statement
 Style Isn't Subjective
return;
{ // unreachable statement
ok: false;
}
 Style Isn't Subjective
return return;
{ {
ok: false ok: false;
}; }

• Bad style • Bad results

Working with the Grain
A Personal Journey

Beautiful Code
 JSLint
• JSLint defines a professional subset of
JavaScript.
• It imposes a programming discipline that
makes me much more confident in a dynamic,
loosely-typed environment.
• http://www.JSLint.com/
WARNING!
JSLint will hurt your
feelings.
 Unlearning Is
Really Hard

Perfectly Fine == Faulty

It's not ignorance does so much
damage; it's knowin' so derned
much that ain't so.

Josh Billings
The Very Best Part:

Stability
No new design errors
since 1999!
 Coming Soon
• [ES3.1] ECMAScript Fifth Edition
• Corrections
• Reality
• Support for object hardening
• Strict mode for reliability
"use strict";
• Waiting on implementations
 Safe Subsets
• The most effective way to make this language
better is to make it smaller.
• FBJS
• Caja & Cajita
• Web Sandbox
• ADsafe
• The next edition of ECMAScript might
include a secure formal subset.
 The Good Parts
• Your JavaScript application can reach a
potential audience of billions.
• If you avoid the bad parts, JavaScript works
really well. There is some brilliance in it.
• It is possible to write good programs with
JavaScript.