Refactoring JavaScript

Preface

Welcome to Refactoring JavaScript. Throughout this book, we’ll be looking at ways to write better JavaScript, drawing inspiration from classical refactoring techniques while exploring various styles of coding.

Why This Book Exists

Like it or not, JavaScript is not going away. No matter what framework or “compiles-to-JS” language or library you use, bugs and performance concerns will always be an issue if the underlying quality of your JavaScript is poor. Rewrites, including porting to the framework of the month, are terribly expensive and unpredictable. The bugs won’t magically go away, and can happily reproduce themselves in a new context. To complicate things further, features will get dropped, at least temporarily.

This book provides clear guidance on how best to avoid these pathological approaches to writing JavaScript. Bad code doesn’t have to stay that way. And making it better doesn’t have to be intimidating or unreasonably expensive.

Who This Book Is For

This book is meant for programmers who have some experience writing bad code, and an interest in writing better code. It’s for those writing JavaScript on the frontend or the backend. It’s for those writing JavaScript by choice as well as those who are “stuck with it” due to JavaScript’s monopoly of the browser platform.

If you’re an absolute beginner, you might want to write some bad code for a couple of months first. If you’re not interested in writing better code, you might not have the patience for this ...