JavaScript: The Better Parts

BetterParts.md

Douglas Crockford
"The Better Parts" (2014)
https://vimeo.com/97419177
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bo36MrBfTk4

ES6 Good Parts

1. Proper tail calls
2. Splat operator (rest and spread)
3. Modules
4. Let keyword / block scope
5. ?

ES6 Bad Parts

1. Classes
2. ?

ES5 Revelations

• stopped using loops
  array.forEach and array.map instead of for
  Object.keys instead of for...in
  ES6: recursion instead of while

• stopped using Object.create()
  stopped using the "this" keyword

function constructor(specObj) {
  var that = other_constructor(specObj),
      member,
      method = function() {
        // specObj, member, method
      };
  that.publicMethod = method;
  return that;
}

Next Language

• An applications language
• No bad parts
• Decimal floating point
• Actor model instead of objects?
  Maybe not. One more OO language first.
• Prototypal > classical
  No premature taxonomy creation
• Class-free > prototypal
  Pros of prototypes: memory conservation (irrelevant today)
  Cons: Retroactive heredity (change an object after it's created)

Here's the number type he proposes: http://dec64.com/

The DEC64 proposal has been harshly criticized on Hacker News. Crockford dismisses these criticisms without addressing them directly. I haven't looked at it closely but my perspective is: anything less than a real numeric tower is a joke.