brentashley

Yesterday I received my (complimentary) copy of Douglas Crockford’s new book Javascript: The Good Parts.

I read it cover-to-cover in a couple of hours. I’m sure I will re-read it cover-to-cover multiple times before I manage to absorb the full import of much of it.

This book is not about the browser, it’s not about Ajax, it’s about a language. It is not a cookbook with recipes, it is a book about the art of cooking that explains what the best available ingredients are and how best to apply them. It may prove to be as central to our understanding of Javascript as K&R is to C, or as the Camel book is to Perl.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn how to properly use this most fascinating and important language.

In passing during a rant about the trajectory of ethics in the field of technical book publishing, Jem Matzan accuses the book Enterprise Ajax of being simply a vehicle to shill Nitobi, the company founded by the authors. No supporting commentary or links, just a broadside blow, in a rant about ethics no less.

I was the technical reviewer on that book and I couldn’t disagree more. I found it to be a well-presented book full of technical and business value that didn’t push specific vendor solutions or dwell unduly on the authors’ business.

You have to get over 400 pages into the book before it gets into case studies that could be construed as promoting their own services, but even then the technical value far exceeds any horn-blowing.

I’d be glad to hear from Jem how I’m wrong and have him show me all the examples of shameless shilling that he perceives, however he doesn’t make it obvious how to contact him to engage him about his reports, and even if I were to chase up his contact info, the resulting email conversation wouldn’t help to clarify his meaning to those who might take it at face value.

It’s a two-way web here though, so leave your comments. Have you read the book and come to the same conclusion? Am I wearing my tech blinkers and missing all the marketing cues?

Joel Spolsky has had more than a modicum of success reading the tea leaves of the software industry, so when he writes an incisive essay about the future of application development and platforms, it’s worth not only taking a look, but pursuing an understanding of some of the relevant issues and technologies.

I’ll provide some links here which will help the reader to understand how many of the points Joel makes in his essay are supported by existing technologies in various states of readiness. It’s a big pantry of ingredients that is waiting for the right chef to come along and combine them in a way that inspires the world to follow.

This list is far from exhaustive but I just want to give you some clues that are representative of each topic to help you get started. Please let me know if I’ve missed any important topics.

Javascript (language):

• ECMAscript - the standard
• Javascript as a Language

Javascript (engine):

• Webkit - used by Apple’s Safari
• Mozilla Tamarin Project - virtual machine, JIT compilation
• Screaming Monkey - Tamarin plugin for IE

Libraries/Widgets:

• Dojo Toolkit - one of the most mature and rich JS libraries and widget sets
• Yahoo User Interface Library - another very large and wide set of utilities and controls
• Ext JS - javascript components

Higher abstractions:

• JQuery - jQuery is designed to change the way that you write JavaScript
• Protoscript - prototyped behaviours simplified
• Google Gears - offline storage
• Dojo Offline Toolkit - abstractions on top of Gears, e.g. sync framework

Frameworks/SDKs:

• Tibco General Interface - comprehensive framework and visual tools
• Qooxdoo - multipurpose framework
• Google Web Toolkit - write in Java, compile to rich app with client-side JS
• OpenLaszlo - framework or runtime platform or both?

Rich Web Application Runtimes:

• Microsoft’s Silverlight
• Adobe’s Air

Not only are the tools and techniques surrounding Ajax development maturing, the very scope of the Ajax meme continues to expand even now, two years since Jesse spake those immortal words back in 2005.

The latest class of techniques to come under the umbrella of Ajax is offline browser applications. At the Ajax Experience conference in SFO last week, there were a few presentations about the Dojo Offline Toolkit, which provides offline application and synchronization abstractions on top of the Google Gears local storage engine. I spent quite a bit of time with Brad Neuberg and his work on DOT is impressive.

Another topic that got much more coverage this time around was Performance Analysis and the tools you can use. Ryan Breen had a great talk that described some very useful tools and Steve Souders presented his new tool YSlow.

I had a chance to hang around with lots of other great folk while I was there - Douglas, Brendan, Sean, Dylan, the charming but unlinkable Stephanie Trimble, John, Pete and Dori to name a few. And of course, Ben and Dion, congenial hosts as always.

Dion Almaer points us to a recently released paper [pdf] from Collin Jackson and Helen Wang introducing their research into a new method of Secure Cross-Domain Communication for Web Mashups.

The method is designed to provide secure cross-domain scripting using the tools that are available now, so we don’t have to wait for the next generation of browsers to provide purpose-built mechanisms.

Collin and Helen, along with some other Microsoft colleagues, have also authored another paper entitled MashupOS: Operating System Abstractions for Client Mashups [pdf] that is worth reading.

There have been some mentions and bit of buzz about my Secure Ajax Mashups article at IBM:

• Ajaxian
• ifacethoughts
• Dave Johnson
• Joe Walker (DWR)
• Shelley at Burningbird

On an entirely different topic, I’ll be playing the drums tonight at Zemra’s regular wednesday night jam session hosted by Brian Allossery. The meaty stuff starts at about 11 p.m. and I’ll be taking the odd turn until about 12:30 a.m. if you care to drop by. It’s an open mic thing, so if you sing or play, put your name on the list at the bar and let’s jam!

IBM Developerworks has just published my new article “Shaping the Future of Ajax Mashups”, wherein I explain that browsers are still not well equipped to enable mashups that integrate input from multiple sources without falling prey to serious security and/or scaling issues. I then discuss some of the potential solutions to the problem and call for the development community to get involved.

I’m also interviewed by IBM’s Scott Laningham in a short podcast promoting the article.

One good way to get involved is to mix with the top people in the Ajax world - the browser manufacturers, the folks who create the libraries and APIs we use to build our Ajax apps, the big players in the industry. Ben and Dion at Ajaxian have just made a call for speakers for their Ajax Experience 2007 show slated for July 25-27 in San Francisco. Having established some great contacts and communication at the two previous Ajaxian shows, I can tell you without doubt that this is the one Ajax show of the year not to miss. It’s an opportunity to spend a couple of days rubbing shoulders with the people in the industry who can actually influence the future of the tools we use to build and use the interactive net.

Dave Johnson has posted a sample chapter from the upcoming book called Enterprise Ajax, written by Dave and his Nitobi colleagues Alexei White and Andre Charland.

I did the tech review on this book and I can tell you it’s filled with high quality writing and insight taken from some pretty serious experience - Andre and Dave started up EBusinessApps (which became Nitobi last year) at least 5 years ago doing Ajaxy stuff well before it was de rigeur.

The book should come out in early summer - you can pre-order a copy now.