JavaScript Talk at Northeastern

Yesterday I gave a presentation for the local ACM of Northeastern University. I covered the basics of JavaScript – targeted to a Computer Science major (in the case of the students at NU, they learn Scheme and Java so I emphasized the subject matter to that audience). I did a fast run-through of the whole language, covering the main points, and move on to a quick inspection of jQuery and the DOM – closing with some Q&A. The subject matter of JavaScript 2 (and 1.6-1.8) came up a couple times so discussion of that was interspersed throughout. There were a bunch of jQuery users in the audience and it was great to get to hear their feedback.

JavaScript and jQuery for CS Majors

Also available in OGG Theora.

Here are the full slides, as well. I left in the slides where I typed out code, so that you can be able to reference it.

Download PDF

Posted: March 27th, 2008

16 Comments (Show Comments)

1. Ryan (March 27, 2008 at 11:16 pm)

   Great presentation! I really liked how you showed some of the more intricate parts of Javascript and jQuery. The info on Javascript 2 was pretty cool too.

   Looking forward to your book!

2. RODrigo CASTilho G. Ferreira (March 27, 2008 at 11:38 pm)

   Excellent, great.

3. Question (March 28, 2008 at 12:50 am)

   I just hope JS2 will be a perfect glue of Mozilla platform, also the power of multi media web content.

4. Cloudream (March 28, 2008 at 2:25 am)

   google video is unavailable in many countries. Youtube is better :)

5. Anup Shah (March 28, 2008 at 7:02 am)

   Good job. I am curious — a few times now you have referred to it as being ideal for prototyping. I wonder if when you say that to audiences that are new to it, that it is not just limited to that; some BIG companies use it in live, not just prototyping :)

6. Jake McGraw (March 28, 2008 at 8:08 am)

   Finally a video presentation, I’ll definitely check this out as I plan on giving a presentation to NYPHP on jQuery this summer.

7. John Resig (March 28, 2008 at 9:35 am)

   @Cloudream: Ah, good to know – although I didn’t upload the video. You should use the OGG link, then, at least you’ll be able to watch it without too many problems, then.

   @Anup: Of course jQuery isn’t only useful for prototyping, I think the list of sites using it is a pretty good indicator. However, the fact that it is so good at prototyping (meaning that it’s trivial to get from a normal HTML page up to something that’s fully interactive). The fact that that’s possible is incredibly important – the barrier to entry is virtually non-existent.

8. Tony (March 28, 2008 at 9:47 am)

   good presentation. shows much about the features of javascript that makes it interesting to use. Even some stuff I’ve forgotten over the years.

9. Anup Shah (March 28, 2008 at 10:35 am)

   John, completely agree — just suggesting that wherever you are introducing jQuery to an audience, as well as saying it is for prototyping you should add that it is not limited to that — it should be obvious, but even at @media ajax in London where the title of your excellent session mentioned it was for prototyping, I overheard people besides me asking about this.

10. Clodelio Delfino (March 30, 2008 at 10:05 pm)

    Thanks for the excellent presentation material…keep it up, cheers.

11. Miek Dunbar (March 31, 2008 at 8:09 pm)

    Hi John,
    I’m a designer who is just beginning to use JavaScript and JQuery, and I found this talk really useful. Previously, I had been hacking code together and making long-winded spaghetti scripts, but after your simple explanations, JS don’t seem so crazy to me after all.

    I went back to my code from a couple of sites with this new knowledge, and I’ve written them in 1/8 the no of lines. Cheers!

12. Ashish (April 4, 2008 at 2:50 am)

    Great stuff. Great presentation from person who developed great library.

13. منتدى (April 5, 2008 at 1:38 pm)

    good presentation. shows much about the features of javascript that makes it interesting to use. Even some stuff I’ve forgotten over the years.

14. Ralph Whitbeck (May 30, 2008 at 9:14 am)

    Weird, this post didn’t show up in my Google Reader.

15. Ralph Whitbeck (May 30, 2008 at 9:15 am)

    NM I am an idiot…it’s there…false alarm. :(

16. Matt Wilson (June 4, 2008 at 8:00 pm)

    Great talk. What does coherse mean? Seems like coerce.

    I really like jQuery. At some point I want to study how you do all the selectors. Really neat stuff.

    BTW, Lua is another language that uses prototype-based inheritance.

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