This is the first programming video I've watched that has made me LOL! Well done. I've been studying js for a few months and I guess I'm lucky that it's my first language. I have nothing to compare it to so everything seems normal to me…mostly. I do scratch my head sometimes. Often.
The problematic nature of javascript seems to be that a programmer with previous experience in another language mapping their knowledge of what a word is on to that same word in javascript. "JS says this is an array? I'm going to make a ton of predictions about how arrays in javascript work, because it better fall in line with all preconceived notions. … It doesn't? MAKE FUN OF IT WITH METAPHOR." If you just take a step back and look at the behavior as is, rather than trying to graft it on your inner-frankenstein's monster of programming word definitions, you'll find something that does behave within boundaries of its own logic. And there are some great things that have come out of javascript you simply cannot deny. JSON just makes WAY more sense in most use cases than XML… but javascript is different, so NUKE IT FROM SPACE, RIGHT??
6 responses to “James Mickens on JavaScript”
The array thing did not seem so weird that it would warrant being talked about for so long.
This is the first programming video I've watched that has made me LOL! Well done.
I've been studying js for a few months and I guess I'm lucky that it's my first language. I have nothing to compare it to so everything seems normal to me…mostly. I do scratch my head sometimes. Often.
In the example that he shows around 8:49, the 2nd alert is calling the first function. Should have worked just fine.
"use strict";
The problematic nature of javascript seems to be that a programmer with previous experience in another language mapping their knowledge of what a word is on to that same word in javascript. "JS says this is an array? I'm going to make a ton of predictions about how arrays in javascript work, because it better fall in line with all preconceived notions. … It doesn't? MAKE FUN OF IT WITH METAPHOR." If you just take a step back and look at the behavior as is, rather than trying to graft it on your inner-frankenstein's monster of programming word definitions, you'll find something that does behave within boundaries of its own logic. And there are some great things that have come out of javascript you simply cannot deny. JSON just makes WAY more sense in most use cases than XML… but javascript is different, so NUKE IT FROM SPACE, RIGHT??
lol I wish he had a lecture series where he taught Javascript and all of its strange ways xD