xmas js101 - our favourite resources

[katjad]

Gicela asked everybody to name 3 resources they found helpful or are interested in exploring more. Here is what we came up with.

[mjg17]

I'm sure some of these suggestions have come from the group, but anyway, here are mine.

A great resource for comparing JS frameworks: http://todomvc.com/

Indispensable reference for HTML, CSS, JS, and lots of frameworks. Works online and offline. Generated from official reference sources: http://devdocs.io/

A nice CSS layout tutorial: http://learnlayout.com/

And a bonus - HTML/CSS table generator (for tabular data, not for layout!!): http://www.tablesgenerator.com/html_tables

[PaulGrimshaw]

First one was https://coderbyte.com/. Good fun attempting the javascript challenges under time pressure!

Second was meteor, new to me though obviously a lot of you know it already. https://www.meteor.com/. Looks good for quickly producing very interactive applications. Handles all client server communication for you, comes with built in MongoDB support, as well as user management etc. Supports AngularJS and ReactJS.

Third one was more of a technique I used, which would delay a function call in nodeJS. I really liked this as it shows how user friendly the javascript callback mechanism is.

I created a proxy class for a web api i used, which effectively throttles the requests. I did this by creating a queue of calls, and a call to the proxy would add to the queue with the parameters. Relevant code below:

//ES6 code

//utility function to store function with params
    wrapFunction (fn, params) {
    return function() {
        fn.apply(this, params);
    };
}

//class that proxies the api call.  Any time method 1 is called, it adds the call to the queue.  An interval call process queue items one by one.
class ProxyClass() {
    //initialised properties
    constructor () {
          ProxyClass.queue = [];
    }

   //Called directly from external objects 
   method1(param1,param2,callback) {
          ProxyClass.queue.push(wrapFunction(this.method1ApiCall,[param1,param2,callback]));
    }

   //Private function (in principle) called by queue service
   method1ApiCall (param1,param2,callback) {
        //on api call success function  ... function() {
             callBack();
        }
   }

   //Called once to start the queue engine
   startProcess(readyForNextCallback) {
          ProxyClass.readyForNextCallback = readyForNextCallback;
          setInterval(this.tick,100);
    }

   //fired every 10th second, executes method and checks if ok to fill more into queue.  If no more methods are queued, fires the callback prompting calling code to add more calls.
   tick() {
       (ProxyClass.queue.shift())();
       if(ProxyClass.queue.length === 0) {
           ProxyClass.readyForNextCallback();
       }
   }
}

And as a bonus - Floobits - https://floobits.com/ - really clever collaborative code editing

[katjad]

So here are mine, I realise they all have to do with learning.

• Free Code Camp http://www.freecodecamp.com/ I like this for several reasons. I think the content is good, I have worked through some of the challenges. And it is all free, there is no paid options at all. At the same time it is high quality, and you get to work on increasingly complex things, even building whole apps for non-profits. It seems to me the people who run this know what they are doing and are really committed to this project, too.
• https://24ways.org/ Advent calendar for web developers. Some really useful stuff, and I like how on each post you can find articles from previous years with related content. Recently there was a post on using React server- and client-side by Jack Franklin https://24ways.org/2015/universal-react/ I also liked this one on Git Rebase https://24ways.org/2015/git-rebasing/
• One I hadn't mentioned this morning as I did not have the link at hand. This is just an article, but among many about learning to code struck me as particularly relevant (to me at least). I think I've been held back by a lot of these barriers over the years, and they still provide a challenge. The one I somehow find most difficult to put into practice is to apply things and just code! So much easier to just work through tutorials ;) http://thenextweb.com/dd/2015/06/11/8-barriers-to-overcome-when-learning-to-code/
• http://nodeschool.io/ Most will know this. Really like the type of workshops, and NodeSchool as a whole

[Gicela]

I suggested https://www.javascript.com/ -particularly the free books link :) The JavaScript podcast https://devchat.tv/js-jabber/ Finally, the latest native javaScript https://www.nativescript.org/ for creating apps in javaScript that work natively!

[anndaff]

Hi there, here are some ebooks

itebooks.zone --> quite a few books on quite a few subjects

JavaScript: The Definitive Guide https://www.dropbox.com/s/jzywdfivri35gw2/%5BO%60Reilly%5D%20-%20JavaScript.%20The%20Definitive%20Guide%2C%206th%20ed.%20-%20%5BFlanagan%5D.pdf?dl=0

Eloquent JavaScript. 2nd.Edition https://www.dropbox.com/s/ibmv0zj663fvu6c/No.Starch.Eloquent.JavaScript.2nd.Edition.Dec.2014.ISBN.1593275846.pdf?dl=0

55Learning Javascript Design Patterns https://www.dropbox.com/s/dba8vw0hup5tcol/55Learning%20%20Javascript%20Design%20Patterns.pdf?dl=0

javascript_tutorial https://www.dropbox.com/s/6p3nbwl0swd143s/javascript_tutorial.pdf?dl=0

Programming in HTML5 with JavaScript and CSS3 https://www.dropbox.com/s/gphj16ttr8335qx/Programming%20In%20HTML5%20With%20JavaScript%20And%20CSS3%20Training%20Guide.pdf?dl=0

Hope this helps :)