Secrets of JavaScript Libraries


1:30 - 4:30pm on Tuesday, September 16 2008 in 1A08 & 10

Writing real-world JavaScript can be a frustrating experience. In addition to the standard issues of scalability, architecture, and style that programmers deal with there’s an extra layer of complexity relating to performance and the writing of cross-browser code. JavaScript libraries are the de-facto way of routing these issues and providing a comprehensive, easy-to-use, solution for writing client-side code.

In this talk we’ll explore all the techniques that go into creating a JavaScript library, from the ground up. This includes everything from code architecture, cross-browser code, and the intricacies of the DOM up to performance analysis and unit testing. Throughout the talk we’ll be examining a number of most popular libraries in an attempt to mine them for practical information on why they are constructed in their particular manner and apply it to our everyday code.

This will be a very code-heavy talk with lots of examples, tutorials, and practical code that you can begin using in your applications today.