/advanced_js

syllabus and materials for the Advanced JavaScript class at NYU

Primary LanguageJavaScript

Advanced JavaScript Build Status

See this README prettier here.

Course Description

Learn best practices in JavaScript in this intensive, five-session course. Topics include data encapsulation, closures, binding, inheritance, and name spacing. Discover some of the lesser-known, yet useful, features of the language, such as how to debug JavaScript problems on different browsers and improve performance. Create interactive webpages using third-party JavaScript libraries.

Computers are provided in the lab, though you are encouraged to bring a laptop for in-class exercises if you feel more comfortable coding in your own environment.

Prerequisites

  • INFO1-CE9755 - JavaScript (syllabus) or equivalent
  • Understanding of variables, data types, control flow, and basic function usage in JavaScript - see Beginner Materials
  • Strong intermediate knowledge of HTML, and at least basics of CSS
  • Basic jQuery knowledge (DOM interaction) is a plus

These won't be enforced by the instructor, but you will be pretty lost without understanding those concepts.

Course Overview

We will dive into the nuances of JavaScript, how prototypal inheritance compares to classical inheritance, and how this can be used to build dynamic and complex web applications. Modern tools like jQuery and BackboneJS will be discussed, but students will learn the building blocks of these frameworks and after this course be able to understand what is happening under the hood. The focus will be on development for browsers, though most applies to other systems like Node.js, Phonegap, etc. Topics covered include:

  • Encapsulation, closures and scope
  • Classical vs. prototypal inheritance
  • The event loop
  • AJAX and JSONP
    • local
    • remote (e.g. Foursquare)
  • Creating MVC-style models (a'la Backbone.js) from scratch
  • Test- and Pseudocode-Driven Development

Topics will be demonstrated through live-code examples/slides, available at afeld.github.io/advanced_js. Additional exercises will completed in-class.

See this interview for more background.

Homework/Projects

All assignments are listed within the Course Outline.

Submission

Submit homework and projects via NYU Classes by the start of the following class. Submissions can be in one of the following formats:

  • A link to the code hosted live (preferred), e.g.
    • On your own site
    • GitHub Pages (guide)
    • An online sandbox (see tools)
      • These are great for small bits of code like the in-class exercises, but not things that are more substantial, like projects. Better to have files split up and organized in directories for those, which sandbox sites (to my knowledge) don't offer.
  • A self-contained, runnable ZIP (HTML included)

Do not just copy-and-paste the code into the submission form.

Requirements

These apply to real life, as well.

Course Outline

Class 1

  • Introduction
  • Student checklist:
  • Explain how slides work
  • Get through "self_executing_functions" slide
  • Homework:

    • Read Google JavaScript Style Guide

    • Read JavaScript Garden

    • Finish up and send echo() and countdown() exercises

    • Write jQuery plugin that makes an element act like a <blink> tag. It should work for any arbitrary speed.

      // show/hide every 1000ms
jQuery('.myDiv').blink(1000);
// twice as fast
jQuery('.otherDiv').blink(500);

      blink demo

Class 2

Class 3

  • Code review Memory
  • Finish slides
  • Developer Tools walkthrough
    • Elements (HTML)
    • Console (JS)
    • Scripts (JS)
  • Cover AJAX/JSONP (files)
    • Network tab in Developer Tools
  • Homework:

Class 4

  • Mashup demos
  • Add tests to namespace
    • Build up a test framework from scratch
    • Show QUnit
  • Getting Serious example
  • Multiple async
  • Homework:

Class 5

Projects

Possible projects are listed here.

Pairing Tips

  • Three people is possible, but two works best
  • Agree on an editor and environment that you're both comfortable with
  • The person who's less experienced/comfortable should have more keyboard time
  • Switch who's "driving" regularly
  • Make sure to save the code and send it to both people
  • JS Bin supports live collaborating

Resources

More Examples

Required Reading

Recommended Reading

Beginner Materials

This class assumes you are confident with this material, but in case you need a brush-up...

Other Lists

Tools

HTML/CSS/JS sandbox

Test Frameworks

Recommended:

Reference

Grading

  • Class Participation – 30%
  • Homework – 70%

Statements on Plagarism

SCPS

New York University takes plagiarism very seriously and regards it as a form of fraud. The definition of plagiarism that has been adopted by the School of Continuing and Professional Studies is as follows: "Plagiarism is presenting someone else's work as though it were one's own. More specifically, plagiarism is to present as one's own words quoted without quotation marks from another writer; a paraphrased passage from another writer’s work; or facts or ideas gathered, organized, and reported by someone else, orally and/or in writing. Since plagiarism is a matter of fact, not of the student's intention, it is crucial that acknowledgement of the sources be accurate and complete. Even where there is not a conscious intention to deceive, the failure to make appropriate acknowledgement constitutes plagiarism. Penalties for plagiarism range from failure for a paper or course to dismissal from the University.

Instructor

Reuse and building upon ideas or code are major parts of modern software development. As a professional programmer you will never write anything from scratch. Please respect the terms of use and/or license, and if you reimplement or duplicate an algorithm or code from elsewhere, credit the original source with an inline comment.

Using this repo

Node.js is required (tested w/ Node v0.10.2). To run the examples/:

$ node run_tests.js

To run an individual exercise:

$ node run_tests.js examples/FILENAME.js

To build the examples as HTML:

$ node build.js

To build this README as a PDF:

$ gem install gimli
$ gimli
# outputs README.pdf