August 7th Gateway JUG Meeting - The JavaScript Every Java Developer Needs to Know
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JavaScript is a language we've all loved to hate.
In Java's early days, it was common for a Java developer to get a call from a recruiter looking for a JavaScript programmer. The recruiter just assumed JavaScript must be the same as Java since Java is in both names. Since we Java developers were all focused on important server-side applications, being confused with a lowlyweb coder was really annoying.
Besides, way back then, Java was catching fire. We were riding the tidal wave that was Java. We had all bought into the inherent goodness of statically typed, statically compiled, and downright statically static Java. Our Web 1.0 Struts apps were all the rage. We didn't need no stinkin' JavaScript.
Life was good. So good, we hoity-toity Java developers just couldn't be bothered with learning JavaScript.
Then came Ajax. And Google Maps. Web 2.0 was here and it changed everything.
Users were no longer content to do full round trips to the server just to have one dropdown list populate when another list value changed. Auto-suggestion became the norm, not just the province of those crazy guys at Google.
Our Struts, JavaServer Faces (JSF) and Spring MVC Web 1.0 web apps suddenly lost all of their web coolness. How'd that happen?
While we were basking in the bright light of server-side Java and looking down our noses at that little scripting language, JavaScript, it snuck up and became the #1 language for doing Ajax and dynamic HTML (DHTML). Applets didn't take over the web. Flash didn't take over the web. JavaScript did.
This presentation is for everyone who recognizes the new tidal wave that is JavaScript. It can't possibly cover eveything about JavaScript, but it does cover the essential elements of the JavaScript language that every Java developer needs to know.
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If you'd like to learn a bit about JavaScript, I invite you to attend our August 7th Gateway JUG meeting. Together we'll explore these questions:
- Why does JavaScript contain Java in its name ?
- How is JavaScript syntax different from Java's?
- How are JavaScript types different from Java's?
- What's the deal with Functions and Objects in JavaScript?
- JavaScript's dynamic. Java's static. What does that mean?
- What are the differences between JavaScript's inheritance model and Java's?
- How do JavaScript collections and arrays compare to Java's?
- What are the really awful parts of JavaScript we should avoid?
This presentation does not cover DHTML and Ajax. However, immediately following this talk, the Gateway Groovy Users Group (GGUG) presentation will be on "Using jQuery to Jazz up Your Grails Application." Though Grails will be the web application platform the talk is based on, the talk is fundamentally about using JavaScript to do DHTML. After seeing a little bit of how to do DHTML the hard way, we'll see how to use the excellent jQuery library to save us a lot of hand-coded JavaScript. So plan on staying for the GGUG meeting to see how to apply what was learned in this presentation to your web applications.
Be sure to RSVP (www.meetup.com) so we can have plenty of food and drink on hand.
Speaker: Dave Blankenship
Sponsor: NetEffects