Seven ways to be a happier JavaScript developer

Seven ways to be a happier JavaScript developer Chris Heilmann (@codepo8) April 2018

ways to be a happier JavaScript developer ▪ Understanding that JavaScript is not a language ▪ Concentrating on the now ▪ Limiting our development environment ▪ Making it harder to write bad code ▪ Getting to know our tooling ▪ Giving back to others ▪ Muffling the noise

Understanding that JavaScript is not a language…

JavaScript is a lot of things… ▪ Far from perfect ▪ Everywhere ▪ Free to use ▪ Environment independent ▪ Freely documented ▪ Instantly gratifying

JavaScript’s versatility means diverse needs. ▪ Web scripts ▪ WebView based solutions (Electron) ▪ Browser extensions ▪ Web based apps (PWA) ▪ Server-side solutions (Node) ▪ Convertible to binary formats (WebAssembly) ▪ Powering Robots (Nodebots) ▪ Packages (NPM)

JavaScript is much more now than we ever expected… ▪ A standardised language (TC39) ▪ An ecosystem ▪ A community ▪ An opportunity to do a lot with one language ▪ A chance to cause damage (performance, security)

Relax - in a world of options nobody can be an expert in all of them.

Concentrating on the now…

Worries of the past shouldn’t prevent us from creating…

Focusing exclusively on the next cool thing is as stifling and depressing

developer.mozilla.org/en-US

caniuse.com

Limiting our development environment

The web development trinity Editor ▪ Where we code ▪ Where we tweak themes ▪ Where we mix spaces and tabs – like animals Terminal ▪ Where we do version control ▪ Where we run build tasks ▪ Where we deploy ▪ Where we tweak themes ▪ Where we assume everyone runs OSX Browser ▪ Where we debug ▪ Where we check and tweak visual output ▪ Where we audit ▪ Where we annoy the end user with odd log messages.

That is a lot of duplication and multiplication with choice

Tooling is starting to overtake that historically grown trinity.

Good editors consolidate features to avoid context switching.

VS Code (@code) Open Source, Cross-platform Hundreds of extensions Highly theme-able Built-in source control support Built-in terminal Integrates into build processes Written and extensible in TypeScript Straightens and lightens teeth with repeat use ▪ Possibly is good against hair loss ▪ Gluten free, macrobiotic ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ code.visualstudio.com

VS Code (@code) Open Source, Cross-platform Hundreds of extensions Highly theme-able Built-in source control support Built-in terminal Integrates into build processes Written and extensible in TypeScript Straightens and lightens teeth with repeat use ▪ Possibly is good against hair loss ▪ Gluten free, macrobiotic ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ twitter.com/crandycodes/status/983488436756627456 code.visualstudio.com

code.visualstudio.com/updates/v1_22#_node-debugging

smashingmagazine.com/2018/01/visual-studio-code vscodecandothat.com

glitch.com Instead of using your own machine, why not try online before? jsbin.com codepen.io

Making it harder to write bad code.

Applying a stricter ruleset pre-empts mistakes

Linting > Debugging ▪ Find mistakes while you make them ▪ Based on the experience and consensus of many others ▪ Learn from explanations of linting results ▪ Install and configure, or use in-built linting. code.visualstudio.com

Moving from knowing .* to learning by making mistakes

Adding custom linting and validation to your dev and release process. webhint.io

Getting to know our tooling

It is true that our tools have become much more complex.

Knowing them gives you superpowers and insights how to build great solutions

Step one is to stop using console.log() and use breakpoints instead. code.visualstudio.com/Docs/editor/debugging smashingmagazine.com/2018/02/javascript-firefox-debugger/

Giving back to others

Take part in the JavaScript community... ▪ Help document ▪ Help clean up and send pull requests ▪ Publish your own work as open source ▪ Enjoy meetups and events ▪ Help by example, not by telling people what they should do

Muffling the noise…

Not everybody cares about the nuts and bolts and has endless time to invest… twitter.com/headjs_ru/status/955333399564161024

It is easy to get tempted to sell people your experience as “best practice”

Find the largest item in the array…

Once learned, never forgotten…

Loop optimisation

Using native methods instead of “if”…

Looking up array methods..

Embracing new language features…

Which one is the best?

It depends™ ▪ Who is writing the code? ▪ Where does it run? ▪ How clean is the data we deal with? ▪ What horrible old environment needs support? ▪ Who will maintain it? ▪ How likely is it ever to change? ▪ How will it be used?

Validate and triage ▪ Let’s not feel bad if not everything in the JS world excites us ▪ Not everything hot and cool is ready to replace what we are comfortable with. ▪ If it doesn’t make our lives easier, it is OK to not use it – hype moves fast and forgets fast. ▪ Let’s be excited, but also ready to give it a “meh”

Projection isn’t good… ▪ What makes us effective can be very subjective ▪ It makes sense to talk about our success. ▪ It makes less sense trying to force others to do the same ▪ New approaches lead to new happy paths, let’s not discourage people from finding theirs.

Let’s not kid ourselves about the bleeding edge… ▪ The amazing new idea of today very often becomes the problem of tomorrow ▪ Production code moves less fast than we think ▪ Our end users aren’t guinea pigs or canaries ▪ It is the bleeding edge, make sure you have enough blood to give

Let’s make this a great community… ▪ Let’s be the people we’d like to have met when we started ▪ Let’s be kind ▪ Let’s be supportive ▪ Let’s allow people to learn by making mistakes and letting off steam ▪ Let’s not get lost in pointless drama

Thanks! Chris Heilmann @codepo8 Terminal photo by Terminal 5 Insider Editor photo by John Oxley Library Browser photo by Joseph Brent