JavaScript is a whole new language to learn in 2018
EcmaScript version history: The Dark Ages
- ES4 never even came out!
- Long delay between initial draft and release meant a lot of browser-specific implementation
- Things had to change
Introducing the
TC39 process
- new way of adding new features in the language
- yearly release, starting with ES2016
Five stages process
- 0 - Strawman
- 1 - Proposal
- 2 - Draft
- 3 - Candidate
- 4 - Finished - The functionality is already usable!
ES2016
- Complete feature list:
- Array.prototype.includes
- Exponentiation Operator
- That's it!
- First release with the new process: small release
ES2017: async/await
- new way to handle promises, integrated into the language
<code example>
ES2017: other features
- SharedBufferArray and Atomics
- Object.values/Object.entries
- String padding
- the trailing comma!!!!
ES2018:Async Iterations
- Iterating over an array of promises
<code example>
ES2018: Other features
- Rest/Spread Properties
- finally a .finally() for promises!
- new Regexp features
And what's next?
And what's next?
- Superset JSON (Stage 4: WILL be in ES2019)
- Private fields and methods (Stage 3: almost certain!)
- Decorators (Stage 2: not for now)
- Nullish Coalescing (Stage 1: maaaaybe)
- Pattern Matching! (Stage 0: well...)
JavaScript in 2018:
OOP flavor
-
class-like syntax (prototypes in disguise)
-
OOP keywords: static, super, extends....
-
ES Modules promoting OOP-like project structures
JavaScript in 2018:
Functional flavor
- ES6 arrow functions are a delight to use
- React/Flux had a huge impact on JS app design (promoting immutability & predictability)
- Pipeline operator will be a game-changer if accepted
The era of transpilers
- Success story of Babel
- Polyfill as a service
- ES2015-2018 is usable today in IE11
- Everyone can and should use latest JS features
- npm everything
- Tooling gets mature and needs less config
Static typing
- Most agree that JS needs a type system
- Finally some viable, lasting solutions:
- TypeScript (Microsoft) 5 y.o. birthday
- Flow (Facebook), lighter yet powerful
- Both are thin layers over JS, easy opt-out
That's key to success (goodbye CoffeeScript & Dart)
Strong dynamic typing
- Now possible in JS using ES6 Proxies
- flow-runtime, and why it's not such a great idea
- objectmodel.js.org short example
(shameless self-promotion)
The rise of build tools
- 2012: laborious (shell scripting, messy ecosystem)
- 2015: manageable (node ecosystem, grunt/gulp)
- 2017: powerful (hot module reload UX, webpack)
- 2019: natural (zero config trend, parcel, fwk CLI)
Predictions about JS Future
(conclusion ?)
2020, the evergreen era
- IE is dead (is it ?)
- less transpiling is needed, but we got used to it
- build tools / transpilers became smart & transparent
- transpiling as a service and smart degradation for older devices or mobile
- most of frameworks job is now done at build time, the runtime size penalty gets close to zero
Predictions about JS Future
(conclusion ?)
2025, the interop era
- npm is bloated and changed its model, or has a competitor. JS is no longer the only option
- WebAssembly arrived quietly and has great interop with JS. They are used together as a compil target
- JS engines get optimized for subsets of the language, improving perf and compile time with the right tooling
- JS has split in 2 parts: one as a compilation target (compressed, subsetted, prepacked, WASM-boosted), one as a language (probably close to TypeScript/ReasonML)
Techforum 2018: JavaScript is a whole new language to learn in 2018
By sylvainpv
Techforum 2018: JavaScript is a whole new language to learn in 2018
JavaScript is a whole new language to learn in 2018
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