Hello and welcome to ‘This Week in JavaScript’ — another curated collection of links relating to what’s new and exciting in the world of JavaScript. The complete list is tagged jsweekly. (Don’t forget to check out our weekly .NET and front end roundups too!)
And now for this week’s finds …
Getting started
- Simplified JavaScript Jargon - Our very own Hugo Giraudel gives us Simplified JavaScript Jargon (short SJSJ) is a community-driven attempt at explaining the loads of buzzwords making the current JavaScript ecosystem in a few simple words.
- 5 practices that will make your code better - A straightforward guide from Robert Bengtsson.
Learning more
- Create virtual reality panoramas with three.js - Learn how to use three.js to create a 360-degree video panorama that the user can look around with a device and Google Cardboard – all within the browser!
- Get robust JavaScript code with the TypeScript library - Structure your JS code more rigidly than ever before with the help of Microsoft’s TypeScript.
- Monads in JavaScript - Monad is a design pattern used to describe computations as a series of steps. They are extensively used in pure functional programming languages to manage side effects but can also be used in multiparadigm languages to control complexity.
- You Don’t Need jQuery - This project summarizes most of the jQuery method alternatives in native implementation, with IE 10+ support.
- How to Spice up Your Slack Channel with Hubot - Matthew Wilkin shows how to ‘make friends’ on Slack.
- Bringing the Power of SIMD.js to gl-matrix - SIMD.js is a JavaScript API which exposes web applications to the SIMD capabilities found in processors. It is being developed by Google, Intel, Mozilla, and Microsoft.
Libraries
- Bliss - Lea Verou introduces Bliss, a lightweight 3Kb library for use with plain old vanilla JavaScript.
- What’s New in Vue.js 1.0 - Ryan Chenkie explores some of the changes and how you can use them to be more productive and expressive when creating apps with Vue.js.
- Making Accessibility Simpler, With Ally.js - ally.js is a JavaScript library to help modern web applications with accessibility concerns by making accessibility simpler - Rodney Rehm explains.
- Split.js - Split.js is a lightweight, unopinionated utility for creating adjustable split views or panes.
ES6 (and beyond…)
- ES7 Proposal: The Pipeline Operator - This proposal introduces a new operator |> similar to F#, OCaml, Elixir, Elm, Julia, and LiveScript, as well as UNIX pipes. It’s a backwards-compatible way of streamlining chained function calls in a readable, functional manner, and provides a practical alternative to extending built-in prototypes.
- Using React is a Business Decision, Not a Technology Choice - This post is not an attempt to teach you something new about React. It is an attempt at the Executive Summary; a starting point for your pitch to try to sell not just developers but everybody on the wonders of React.
- Get started using React, Reflux & Webpack today. - A no-frills get started now package for those interested in React, Reflux, ES6 & Webpack.
- React Tutorial for Beginners - In this video you will learn how to setup your project for React development and you will build a simple React app with Node, Babelify, Watchify, Browserify, and React/ReactDOM npm packages.
- React ContainerQueryContainer - A higher-order react component enabling container queries today.
- Universal React - Jack Franklin shows you how to create a tiny ReactJS application that will work on the server and the client.
Frameworks
- New Bootstrap 4 alpha - Now with added support for jQuery 2.
- How to Build a WI-FI Dashboard Using Node.js and Ractive.js - Part 3 of Marcello La Rocca’s mini-series about dashboards.
- Meteor Galaxy Developer Edition First Look - In this Meteor video tutorial from Level Up Tutorials, you can get a first look at Meteor’s Galaxy hosting platform developer edition.
Everything Else
- DevTools in 2015: Authoring to the max - Paul Bakaus takes you through some of the up and coming DevTools features in Chrome.
- Microsoft Chakra Goes OS - Microsoft announced that it is open sourcing Chakra, the JavaScript engine used in its Edge and Internet Explorer browsers. The code will be published to the company’s GitHub page in January.
- Bower release v1.7.0 - The release includes fixes and enhancements that have been on Bower’s radar for years. Bower offers a clean, unopinionated solution to front-end package management.
- JavaScript Developer Survey Results - With 5,350 responses received, the Ponyfoo.com survey results are the ones you want to see.
- Espruino Home Computer - In this tutorial you’ll learn how to make your own JavaScript computer in a few hours using Espruino! One of those ‘Just because they could’ projects…
For 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 Chris of Arabia.