This Week in JavaScript - 13 July 2015

[James_Hibbard]

Hello and welcome to This Week in JavaScript—a lovingly curated collection of links relating to what’s new and exciting in the world of JS. The complete list is tagged jsweekly. (Don’t forget to check out our weekly .NET and front end roundups too!)

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News & Opinion

• SitePoint Smackdown: PHP vs Node.js — Choosing a server-side language is a subjective decision. Should you consider the reliable PHP or the more revolutionary Node.js? Let battle commence…
• PHP vs Node.js Smackdown: Right of Reply — Bruno’s and my response to Craig’s smackdown.
• Don’t use || to set default values in JavaScript — How to set defaults values in JavaScript.
• The Future of Programming: WebAssembly & Life After JavaScript — Eric Elliott on what’s coming next.
• Google hits TurboFan button on Chrome’s JavaScript engine — Google says its new optimizing compiler tech is gradually speeding up JavaScript execution in its Chrome browser.
• Every Programmer Should Understand This — Computer science basics.
• NPM 3 Beta Brings Good News for Windows Users — Flattended dependencies are expected to eliminate cases where too many dependencies would break the Windows file system.

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Libraries

• 11 Best jQuery Charting Libraries — 11 jQuery charting libraries that you can use to create interactive dataviz
• Layzr.js — A small, fast, modern, and dependency-free library for lazy loading.
• angular-reading-indicator — Angular Directive to show a progress bar with a reading time estimate.
• PopSelect — A jQuery plugin to replace the traditional box with a sleek Popover with options pre-populated. ttystudio — A terminal-to-gif recorder minus the headaches.

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  APIS Using the Media Capture API — Microsoft's David Voyles introduces the Media Capture API, the main interface that allows webpages to access media capture devices such as webcams. Web audio API: Filter Playground — Experiment with the filters provided by the Web Audio specifications. A True Gaming Experience with the Gamepad API — The Gamepad API allows users to connect devices like an Xbox Controller to a computer and use them for browser-based experiences! How I trained sheet reading using the Web MIDI API — A look at creating a webapp that renders random sheets of music then uses the Web MIDI API to monitor you playing them back. Introduction to the Fetch API — The Fetch API aims to replace XMLHttpRequest as the foundation of communication with remote resources.

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  ReactJS React.js Introduction — For People Who Know Just Enough jQuery To Get By Video: An Introduction to Component State in React — A look at how to keep state, change state and finally how to render state. Introduction and Getting Started with React.js — A 1h20m workshop from JSConf 2015. React Internals — An Introduction to React’s Diff Algorithm React Hot Loader — Tweak React components in real time.

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  Tutorials Exploring ES2016 Decorators — What the heck are decorators anyway? Handling User Authentication with the MEAN Stack — A rather in-depth tutorial. A Beginner’s Guide to Handlebars — The basic concepts of Handlebars and its frequently used functions, How to Merge Arrays with JavaScript — A neat trick to merge a second array into an existing first array Creating Scroll-based Animations using jQuery and CSS3 — How to trigger animations when scrolling into a pre-defined region.

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  Pen of the Week - Sneezing Dragon http://codepen.io/Yakudoo/pen/yNjRRL

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  I hope you’ve enjoyed working through these links. If you want more links like this and to keep up-to-date with the latest goings on in JS land, you can follow SitePoint’s JavaScript channel on Twitter. Please PM us if you have anything of interest for the next issue or if there is anything you would like to see featured. Paul and Pullo.

[felgall]

Is it still June where you are. It is July here.

[Paul_Wilkins]

@felgall

Is it still June where you are. It is July here.

This must be a case of the rare and elusive leap month.

[James_Hibbard]

Lol. Well spotted, felgal.
Thanks for fixing, Paul Ryan.

[Paul_Wilkins]

@James_Hibbard

Thanks for fixing, Paul.

Thanks, but t’was Ryan that got there before any of us