Chapter 1. MVC and Classes
Early Days
JavaScript development has changed markedly from how it looked when it was first conceived. It’s easy to forget how far the language has come from its initial implementation in Netscape’s browser, to the powerful engines of today, such as Google’s V8. It’s been a rocky path involving renaming, merging, and the eventual standardization as ECMAScript. The capabilities we have today are beyond the wildest dreams of those early innovators.
Despite its success and popularity, JavaScript is still widely misunderstood. Few people know that it’s a powerful and dynamic object-oriented language. They’re surprised to learn about some of its more advanced features, such as prototypal inheritance, modules, and namespaces. So, why is JavaScript so misunderstood?
Part of the reason is due to previous buggy JavaScript implementations, and part of it is due to the name—the Java prefix suggests it’s somehow related to Java; in reality, it’s a totally different language. However, I think the real reason is the way most developers are introduced to the language. With other languages, such as Python and Ruby, developers usually make a concerted effort to learn the language with the help of books, screencasts, and tutorials. Until recently, though, JavaScript wasn’t given that endorsement. Developers would get requests to add a bit of form validation—maybe a lightbox or a photo gallery—to existing code, often on a tight schedule. They’d use scripts they’d find on the ...