Pro JavaScript Development: Coding, Capabilities, and Tooling

Pro JavaScript Development is a practical guide for front-end web developers who are experienced at building web pages with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, and now wish to advance their JavaScript skills to a higher level. You will learn how to build large, well-structured, high quality, mobile-optimized web sites and apps, using the latest supported browser APIs, language features, and tools. This book teaches and shows you in practical hands-on terms how you can:

• Master the performance, reliability, stability, and code manageability of your JavaScript
• Understand and write efficient object-oriented and prototypal code, including full understanding of the ‘this’ keyword
• Boost the performance of your JavaScript code
• Architect large web applications using common design patterns
• Write high quality JavaScript code and avoid the pitfalls most likely to cause errors
• Manage code dependencies with AMD and RequireJS
• Develop for mobile, build games, and set up a real-time video chat using modern APIs such as Geolocation, Canvas and WebRTC
• Document your code as the professionals do
• Write command-line and web server applications in JavaScript with Node.js,
• Use build tools, such as Grunt and Gulp, to automate repetitive tasks and improve your development workflow

Using real-world examples and applications that you'll build yourself, Pro JavaScript Development has unique, practical content that will make you a better JavaScript developer. Become a master of the latest JavaScript coding techniques and tools, and harness its best capabilities today.

What you’ll learn

• To build faster and more efficient web apps using the latest techniques
• How to select the best libraries and frameworks for each project based on design patterns and sound principles
• To manage JavaScript objects with inheritance through the ‘prototype’ property and the 'this' keyword
• To unit test your JavaScript, to measure and improve the quality of your code
• To create your own web server using Node.js, featuring real-time bidirectional communication with web sockets

Who this book is for

This book is intended for the front-end web developer who is already using JavaScript but wants to know what tools, and techniques they can use to enhance their development. You want to create better apps, better sites, with the best and latest skills.

About the Author

Den Odell is a multi-disciplined web developer with expert HTML, CSS, and JavaScript skills. He is a web standards and accessibility advocate, with a special passion for user interface development.

As a front-end (user interface) technical architect at the AKQA digital service agency in London, Den built and architected several large-scale web sites and rich Internet applications for a number of clients, including Ferrari, Nike, and Nokia. After a hiatus in Sweden, where he used his technical skills and passion for music to help record labels and artists develop their presence on the Web, he has returned to London where his role as Head of Web Development at AKQA is helping deliver innovative front-end solutions to meet client's needs.