Harmony.js

I haven't updated the blog for some time. Because I am working on an interesting JavaScript UI Library, Harmony. Like other JavaScript library such backbone.js, knockout.js, it tries to build HTML application in a structured way. What is unique is that it does not a have controller or binder. The models and views are pretty much on their own. They all take care about themselves by subscriptions. Are we going back to the age that we have tons of event handlers like spaghetti? Far from it. There are really lots of subscriptions and their handlers, but they are structured in a way that feels like object-oriented. The subscriptions and handlers are part of the objects (views and models). The views and models are treated like Human being in Harmony, they make decisions on their own, they respect each others, they are not manipulating or commanding each others.

"use strict" and "this" in ES5

"this" is a special variable in JavaScript. If a Constructor function is called without "new", the "this" variable inside the constructor will reference the Global object. We can use "use strict" in ES5 to prevent this happening.

(function () {
  "use strict";
  console.log(this === window); //false
 })();

Why dynamic resource loading is so important for web application?

When I finished matrix.js 0.1, I asked for feedback from my friends. But the general response seems that I am trying to solve a problem which does not exist, so the library is useless. But I am not disappointed. I make it not because we have a pain point in my current projects, but because I see it is the way that we need to build future web application. It is better to explain what the problem is as I see, before I propose on a solution. I believe that, as we are developing web application, dynamic resource loading will be a essential function. The current way to import resource using <link> <script> tag statically and tools like combres will not be able to meet the needs of building web application.

What does the size of a JavaScript Library say about it?

When people introduce a JavaScript library, they often mention that the size of the library is very small, like "it is small and light weight, xx K minified, in fact is about yy k when gzipped". Does this means a library runs fast or use less memory? Neither. We know that 1k size virus can use up all your machine resource, and make it dead slow, right? What it means the library can be transported to client side faster. Normally the more features a library provide, the bigger the size. You can use profiler (like the one built in Chrome) to collect data when using the library in real life scenario.

The design principle of viaProxy

[update: the library is now in github, and the sample code discussed in this post is here]

viaProxy is a client side JavaScript library that can be used to build complex, fast and fluid web UI yet in a manageable code complexity. It is a set of low-level api which is built on top of jQuery and enable you to synchronize your view and model using imperative programming (code only) or declarative programming ( mark-up only) or both. You can use it to write testable views, modules, plugins, and aggregate them into complex view.