Chapter 22
Advanced Techniques
WHAT’S IN THIS CHAPTER?
- Using advanced functions
- Tamper-proofing your objects
- Yielding with timers
JavaScript is an incredibly flexible language that can be used in a variety of styles. Typically, JavaScript is used in either a procedural manner or an object-oriented one. The language, however, is capable of much more intricate and interesting patterns because of its dynamic nature. These techniques make use of ECMAScript language features, BOM extensions, and DOM functionality to achieve powerful results.
ADVANCED FUNCTIONS
Functions are one of the most interesting parts of JavaScript. They can be quite simple and procedural in nature, or they can be quite complex and dynamic. Additional functionality can be achieved through the use of closures. Furthermore, function pointers are very easy to work with, since all functions are objects. All of this makes JavaScript functions both interesting and powerful. The following sections outline some of the advanced ways that functions can be used in JavaScript.
Safe Type Detection
JavaScript’s built-in type detection mechanisms aren’t foolproof and, in fact, can sometimes give both false positives and false negatives. The typeof operator, for example, has several quirks that can make it unreliable in detecting certain types of data. Since Safari (through version 4) returns "function" when typeof is applied to a regular expression, it’s difficult to definitively determine if a value is a function.
The
