It’s been several months since I read Javascript: The Good Parts but I thought it was worth mentioning that this old classic is an excellent read. It also takes offers a more traditional look at javascript, which is important in understanding why certain changes are being made today.

We are really quite lucky that things like package managers, module loaders, and javascript features have matured to the point where they are being standardized, and browsers are iterating (as well as the spec) at a rate that is making the language more of a pleasure to use. There are things that are also being added that are difficult or impossible to polyfill like WeakMap and generators, that will be fun to play with. Crawford’s follow-up coverage “The Better Parts” I think is best shown at the Nordic.js 2014 conference, check it out:

ps: his take on class as being a “bad part” is interesting. I don’t currently have an opinion since it makes sense how it works behind the scenes. I do like the idea of  Object.create, and it’s interesting how he finds this  as a security flaw and by not using it he didn’t need to use  Object.create  which made things even simpler. This might be a bit more of  a “functional” approach which is made easier with modules and exports.