By Azat Mardanov If it’s not fun, it’s not JavaScript. And you can’t spell fundamentals without fun. Programming languages like BASIC, Python and C have a boring, machine-like nature that requires developers to write extra code that’s not directly related to the solution itself. Think about line numbers in BASIC or interfaces, classes and patterns […]
Building Multiplayer Games with Node.js and Socket.IO
By Eric Terpstra With the release of the Ouya, Xbox One and PS4 this year, couch-based console gaming appears to be as popular as ever. Despite the proliferation of multi-player games available on mobile devices, and even the advent of multi-player experiences available on the web, sitting next to the person you’re playing a game […]
Functional Reactive Programming in JavaScript
By Sean Voisen If you are a front-end developer – that is, someone who builds user interfaces for a living – and you haven’t yet explored Functional Reactive Programming (FRP), perhaps now is the time to take a look. Never mind the fact that it has been labeled a hipster development trend for 2013, FRP is a time-saving, […]
Rethinking JavaScript’s Try/Catch
By Ryan Morr The try/catch block is a unique construct, both in how it works and what it is capable of. Fundamentally, it is able to isolate one or more statements to capture and suppress any runtime errors that may be encountered as a result of execution. It is such a powerful construct that in […]
Automating Complex Workflows with Grunt Custom Tasks
By Ben Farrell Grunt.js has come onto our web development scene pretty quickly. It’s only at 0.4.1 at the time I write this, but it seems to be a pretty standard part of many of our toolboxes already. It’s fairly common to see it in a web project wherein the developer may need to pull […]
Easy API Scaffolding with Simple-API and Node.js
By Joseph Wegner API’s are often a pain to build. There’s all kinds of moving pieces: routing, data parsing, serialization, database interactions, etc. For years I’ve struggled with writing web API’s in Node.js - there’s just so much complexity required in an API boilerplate. That’s why I wrote Simple API. Simple API is an incredibly easy […]
Creating a Realistic Rain Effect with Canvas and JavaScript
By Marek Brodziak I recently released a fun project called rainyday.js. I consider it a rather humble piece of code and, in fact, it is more or less my first contact with JavaScript on a level that requires a little more than displaying alert popups. Hopefully, some of you will find it useful and interesting. […]
Mocking Server Dependencies in JavaScript and AngularJS
By Cliff Meyers Most Single Page Applications (SPA) written in HTML and JavaScript interact with server side code using the familar XMLHttpRequest object. During development it can be convenient to run the application with mock data that eliminates this server dependency. This can be useful if the server side stack is complex and not easy […]
Retro Game Music using Web Audio and Band.js
By Brian Rinaldi Being a proper geek, I have a (mostly) healthy love for video games and being old(ish), I have a strong streak of nostalgia. Thankfully, classic 8-bit games are are apparently back in style and even new games are aping the 8-bit style. Music plays a big role in the overall feel of […]
Creating Custom Filters in jQuery
By Aurelio De Rosa In some cases you may need a shortcut to collect elements for which jQuery doesn’t provide a specific filter. This is exactly where custom filters come into play. In this article, based on my book Instant jQuery Selectors, you’ll learn how to build a custom filter in jQuery. Please note that the example […]