Around 1995 I started creating web pages. HTML was my friend, and analogous to the story of Adam and Eve, a companion called CSS was created. I considered HTML to be the robust male of the relationship, and CSS giving the beautiful female touch to my web pages.
Then Darkness came.
A brand new player invaded my perfect little web world and tried to make it into a love triangle. Enter JavaScript. At first this new technique looked awesome to me. I knew Turbo C++ 3.0 (with a nice DOS look and feel) as well as Visual Basic, and was eager to add some dynamic features to my web pages.
Oh how I underestimated the complexity. I knew no patterns, none of my code had ever been reviewed by others, and I tried to figure out everything with trial and error. Plus: I didn’t understand the DOM at all. So I ended up writing stuff like this:
|
1 2 3 4 5 6 |
The above snippet must have cost me a week to figure out. I was so frustrated I wanted to ban JavaScript from my pages as much as possible, which is exactly what I did when I learned to use Perl to add dynamic features to web sites.
More than a decade passed, but Darkness was still looming. I tried to stay in the Light with my happy couple HTML and CSS (only tolerating incidental guest appearances by JavaScript). I even turned to WinForms programming in .NET so I wouldn’t have to face the Darkness.
But then my ASP.NET days came, and it turned out: JavaScript was here to stay. However, my second encounter with JavaScript was mediated by jQuery, which had powers rivaling those of Dr. Phil himself. That library makes JavaScript feel like the love child of HTML and CSS, with a dynamic twist.
And so, JavaScript is getting a second chance. Any leftover JavaScript frustrations were explained in this presentation: I started to use JavaScript without ever learning it. So I picked up the corresponding book by Douglas Crockford, which shall be followed by The Definitive Guide. Hopefully this will allow me to Learn to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.
Foot note: at the time of writing, the piece of JavaScript code in this post is still running in production, in a Web Shop created in the 90’s, using Perl 5, HTML4, CSS2, and a hint of JavaScript…