A (Re)-Introduction to JavaScript INTRODUCTION

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To add some variety, I’ll be demonstrating some alternative JavaScript. hosts later in the tutorial. OVERVIEW. Let’s start off by looking at the building …

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A (Re)-Introduction to JavaScript
Simon Willison - http://simonwillison.net/
Notes made for a 3 hour tutorial at ETech in San Diego, March 6th 2006
INTRODUCTION ………………………………………………………………………………………. 1
OVERVIEW………………………………………………………………………………………………. 2
NUMBERS………………………………………………………………………………………………… 2
STRINGS…………………………………………………………………………………………………… 4
OTHER TYPES………………………………………………………………………………………….. 4
VARIABLES……………………………………………………………………………………………… 5
OPERATORS …………………………………………………………………………………………….. 5
CONTROL STRUCTURES………………………………………………………………………….. 6
OBJECTS: …………………………………………………………………………………………………. 7
ARRAYS…………………………………………………………………………………………………… 9
FUNCTIONS……………………………………………………………………………………………..10
CUSTOM OBJECTS …………………………………………………………………………………..13
INNER FUNCTIONS ………………………………………………………………………………….17
CLOSURES……………………………………………………………………………………………….17
MEMORY LEAKS……………………………………………………………………………………..18
INTRODUCTION
My name’s Simon Willison, and the title of this session is “A re-introduction to
JavaScript”.
Why a re-introduction? Because JavaScript has a reasonable claim to being the
world’s most misunderstood programming language. While often derided as a toy,
beneath its deceptive simplicity lie some powerful language features. The last year
has seen the launch of a number of high profile JavaScript applications, showing that
deeper knowledge of this technology is an important skill for any web developer.
It’s useful to start with an idea of the language’s history. JavaScript was created in
1995 by Brendan Eich, an engineer at Netscape, and first released with Netscape 2
early in 1996. It’s was originally going to be called LiveScript, but was renamed in an
ill-fated marketing decision to capitalise on…