Infrequently Noted

Alex Russell on browsers, standards, and the process of progress.

JavaScript Idioms Every Webdev Should Grok

JavaScript (the language, not the browser bindings for the DOM, etc.) can be either brutally hard or refreshingly flexible. It's difficulty is directly related to how well you grok a couple of core concepts. I'm going to just list them and leave in-depth explanations to Tom's forthcoming book on advanced JavaScript.

Here goes:

If all of that makes sense to you, JavaScript can be a fun, liberating experience. If not, it's going to be a world of pain and broken expectations as you shed the baggage of less dynamic languages.

Good luck.