JavaScript Trends

jQuery 1.8

• Modularity — build your own jQuery.
• Vendor-Prefixed CSS — LESS/SASS in my JS?
• Obligatory Sizzle.js Update — sizzle powers the selector engine.
• XSS Protection — because you sure don't do it.
• Remove Deprecated Features — removes deprecated hangers-on, eg: $.browser.

jQuery 1.9 & jQuery 2.0

Essentially the same API, but 2.0 will drop "OldIE" support, freeing it up enormously.

• 2.0 Drops IE < 9 Support
• Reduced file size — removes all shims, polyfills and if blocks.
• Massive Performance Gains.
• Facilitates Progress — can focus efforts on functionality like $.deferred.

FAQs

My site still has many IE7/8 visitors but I want to use jQuery 2.0. Can I do that?

If your web site needs oldIE support, and we expect most sites will need it for at least another year or two, you can use IE conditional comments to include version 1.9 only when visitors are using oldIE:

    <!--[if lt IE 9]>
        <script src="jquery-1.9.0.js"></script>
    <![endif]-->
    <!--[if gte IE 9]><!-->
        <script src="jquery-2.0.0.js"><</script>
    <!--<![endif]-->

FAQs

Why not make an "oldIE plugin" for jQuery 2.0?

Special dispensations for oldIE are sprinkled throughout jQuery. Refactoring the code to provide enough hooks so that oldIE support could be added as a plugin would complicate the code for the modern browser case. Plus, developers supporting oldIE and using a public CDN would then need to include two files (jQuery 2.0 and the oldIE plugin) instead of one.

What's the ETA?

• jQuery 1.8 — should arrive within a month.
• jQuery 1.9 — early 2013.
• jQuery 2.0 — early 2013, not long after 1.9.

A select few goodies

• let keyword — block scoped var.
• default arguments — the end of $.extend(defaults,params).
• multiline strings
• templating — embed variables into strings natively.
• proposed module system

MVC vs. MVP vs. MVVM

Continued development and introduction of libraries. Plenty of Addy Osmani resources help to make sense of the mess.

• KnockoutJS
• Backbone.js
• Spine
• Ember.js — branched from Sproutcore
• Cappucino
• Angular.js

Modularity (AMD)

Fundamental question: What's more important, keeping HTTP requests down or having a site immediately responsive?

Movement on the W3 spec front, no winners yet. ES-Harmony path proposed.

• Require.js
• CommonJS
• Yepnone.js — conditional modularity.

Compilation

2011-2012: the years everything compiled to JS.

Linting

The community is espousing linting more and more, made possible by better tools and better IDE and Text Editor plugins/scripts.

• JSHint — a kinder, community-influenced lint.
• IDE Plugins — Sublime Text, Visual Studio etc..

Not going to cover

Plenty happening in this space.

Covered elsewhere in better detail.