confessions of the traitor: how objective c made me a better javascript programmer

Confessions

@szafranek

of a TraitorHow Objective C Made Me a Better JavaScript Programmer

Front-end developer, manager at Roche

Front-end architectat Nokia

Game developerat Wooga

github.com/wooga/Pocket-Island

The last HTML5 project I was a part of is now available as open source.

In May 2012, after 7 years of professional front-end development, I started to work on native iOS game.

[self learn:@"Objective C"];

We make our tools,our tools make us

• C with class-based OOP• [syntax awkward:YES];• Compiled• No garbage collection!

[Disclaimer]

I will not try to convince you that JavaScript should be more like other languages.Yet we can be more effective JS developers by learning something from others.

JavaScript AD 2004

-----------------------------------------------------------------Language files blank comment code-----------------------------------------------------------------Javascript 100 3764 1858 22258HTML 9 73 23 690Ruby 4 90 15 237Bourne Shell 2 13 0 27-----------------------------------------------------------------SUM: 115 3940 1896 23212-----------------------------------------------------------------

Codebase size of Pocket Island. The project didn’t use external libraries.

-----------------------------------------------------------------Language files blank comment code-----------------------------------------------------------------Javascript 717 79132 184499 425289HTML 452 84159 4819 198471XML 133 2155 1391 122219Java 527 10215 6633 42287CSS 94 3067 2101 23727Ruby 33 599 146 1794XSLT 1 57 29 1453Bourne Shell 47 285 293 865Python 5 244 256 828XSD 2 0 2 244JSP 4 7 0 92DTD 1 37 32 92Perl 2 26 0 55DOS Batch 4 4 1 18-----------------------------------------------------------------SUM: 2022 179987 200202 817434-----------------------------------------------------------------

Codebase size of my previous JavaScript project. That one included several external libraries.

JavaScript AD 2004

JavaScript AD 2012

Building

• minification• linting• unit testing• deployment• template processing• much more

Currently Grunt offers over 200 plugins.

Automate

* Let machines do what they're best at: * catching silly mistakes * optimization * boring but necessary tasks

Unit tests

Everybody has heard about unit tests, but have you actually seen or wrote them?

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Is the number of JS unit testing frameworks higher than the number of JavaScript developers writing tests?

In Objective C world unit testing is supported out of the box.

“No one pays you for testing”

The above quote comes from a PHP talk I listened to recently.

* Don’t ask your boss or client if you can write tests – tests are part of the code, not something extra* The point of writing tests is to make you faster at delivering quality product, not slower.* Tests enforce better coding style.

Getting started

1) Pick any framework

buster.js, js-test-driver, QUnit, Jasmine are all good places to start.

2) Start writing tests

Unit test is a function that tests

another function

function factorial(n) { if (n == 1) { return 1; } return n * factorial(n-1);}

function testFactorial() { assert.equals(120, factorial(5));}

test

implementation

3) Automate with test runner

If you haven’t already picked a framework with integrated runner, like buster.js or js-test-driver, use testem to run your tests.

You will NOT keep writing tests if you don’t automate running them with Continous Integration tool like Jenkins.

Test runner

Unit testing framework

vs.

Modern test runners can execute your tests in a variety of JS environments.

buster.jsFramework and runner... that doesn’t run on Windows. Yet.

Authors are working on it. Version 1.0 will run on Windows.

Cross-platform test runner

Needs test framework

testem

Test framowork used by jQuery

QUnit

http://szafranek.net/works/articles/javascript-unit-testing/

http://bit.ly/writing-testable-javascript

Presentation contains practical example of making typical jQuery-based code testable.

Static analysis

Early warning system in an editor.

jshint

jslint

Your sadly pathetic bleatings are harshing my mellow.

Douglas Crockford commenting on complaints about jslint being too restrictive.This quote was one of the reasons to create jshint.

1) Make your intent obvious

Anything that isn’t crystal clear to a

static analysis tool probably isn’t clear

to your fellow programmers,

either.

Highly recommended article on the value of static analysis, by John Carmack:http://www.altdevblogaday.com/2011/12/24/static-code-analysis/

2) Catch mistakes early

Integrate jslint or jshint with your editor.

Automate

Use continuous integration to run static analysis checks on your code.

Refactoring

Improvingthe design of codewithout changing its external behavior

Improvingthe design of codewithout changing its external behavior

Goals

Before starting refactoring, think for a moment what you want to achieve.

Remove duplication

Extract method, extract variable

if (player.coins < budget.getMin()) { offerCredit();}if (friend.coins < budget.getMin()) { offerFriendCredit();}

var min = budget.getMin();if (player.coins < min) { offerCredit();}if (friend.coins < min) { offerFriendCredit();}

Make your intentclear obvious

[taskShortcut performSelector:selector withObject:param];

Named parameters in Objective C encourage explicit naming.

data, t, managerare not good names

formData, timeLeft, urlRouter are better

Explanatory variables

button.setPosition(0, parseInt(parentDiv.height, 10) / 2 - parseInt(border.size, 10) / 2);

var verticalCenter = parseInt(parentDiv.height, 10) / 2 - parseInt(border.size, 10) / 2;

button.setPosition(0, verticalCenter);

It’s worth to introduce a variable to communicate intention clearly, even if it doesn’t reduce duplication.

Design patterns

Design patterns make the intent of the design easy to see.If you are using a pattern, make sure it’s communicated through naming.

Clean code first,optimization second

Premature optimization is the root of all evil.

Improvingthe design of codewithout changing its external behavior

Tests!

How do you verify that behavior didn’t change?

Tests?Refactoring without tests (aka “happy development”) is all too common.It’s not a very responsible thing to do.

IDE

The problem with refactoring JavaScript:poor tool support -> makes refactoring require courage -> makes refactoring less likely to happen.

Search and replace doesn’t constitute “tool support” for refactoring – it’s only text-based and doesn’t guarantee that the semantics of your program will be preserved.

My reaction to the word “IDE”...

... was deeply rooted.

WebStorm IDE has good support for essential refactorings.

•Web Storm•...•...•...•Cloud9•...?

We need better and more tools for refactoring JavaScript!

Automate

Refactoring has to be performed by a human, but good tool (like WebStorm) can make it much safer and easier.

Refactoring

Unit testing

Static analysis

automate

automate

automate

@szafranek

Image credits:

eclectic echoes

The Facey Family

chrisnb20

Esther Gibbons

Thank you!

Philippe Semeria

Nick Treby

QuakeCon