JavaScript Sketches

I have a few JavaScript-related things I want to talk about. I prefer implementing something or give a proposal more consideration before talking about it. However, I find that I end up not talking about a lot of things that bounce around in my head. So I will start talking more about them, even though they are not fully formed. This blog post is to set up the context and disclaimers for those posts, so I can link back to them.

Disclaimers

I will make a bunch of declarations that I will not back up as much as they deserve. I may expand on them in later posts, but most likely I will not. The point of these sketches is to get the basic thought out instead of keeping it internal.

If I cast a negative light on your favorite project, keep in mind this is my blog, so it is naturally biased, and there always needs to be hedge bets. Until there are implementations with real world use, the future is always malleable, and often big enough to accommodate a few different views. Keep working on what you are passionate about.

I will be ruthless and what may seem like unfair in my comment management/deletion policy. You are free to say your own piece on your own blog.

Who am I?

I have been working with JavaScript since at least 1998. It was earlier than that, but that was the start of a large scale project that got real users. Since then I have used it on and off. I still need to learn more about the inner dark places of the language and its implementations, but I have used it to build some larger front-ends, particularly while at AOL: a picture service UI, a cross-browser plugin for streaming radio, a chat service UI, and helped out with a webmail service UI. I contribute to Dojo, make RequireJS, and work at Mozilla on web-based messaging services. I only want to develop for the web platform, using JavaScript. I did not study computer science, but physics, so I lack some of the CS technical underpinnings.