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Re: Javascript: TDG 6th edition

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Scott Sauyet wrote:

> Andrew wrote:
>> Is there an online reference of reasonable quality, similar to the
>> documentation for Python? (I'm guessing no, but would like to be wrong)
> 
> I don't really know the Python documentation, but there is definitely
> not one definitive source of API documentation,

The reason of which is that, AFAIK by contrast to Python, there is no 
“Javascript”.  I am still amazed how some people can still manage to ignore 
that basic fact.

> but note that the API is quite small.

IBTD.  For the next version of the ECMAScript Support Matrix (see [1] for 
the current version), to date I compared 278 native language features, and 
the list is still incomplete.  Of those features, (unless I miscounted 
slightly) only 81 were syntactical and could not reasonably be said to be 
part of an API.  I expect the percentage of the “API features” of the 
various ECMAScript implementations to be growing as I test more features and 
implementations, and as “Harmony” (ES 6-to-be) proposals are implemented.

It can only be reasonably stated that the built-in API of ECMAScript is 
smaller than the built-in API of Python.  This is supported by the fact that 
Python has a built-in tree-like module system, while most ECMAScript 
implementations (and particularly those used in Web browsers) do not.  Any 
modules are either implementation-specific or provided for (dynamic) 
inclusion in markup documents by third parties (libraries); namespacing is 
only artificial (and unfortunately is going to remain so – according to 
Brendan Eich, the namespace proposal has been dropped to achieve “ECMAScript 
Harmony”, and is not coming back).

> The best reference site might well be MDN [1] but it is not a tutorial.

MDN does contain a (Mozilla) _JavaScript_ tutorial, because there are more 
ECMAScript implementations (than JavaScript), and more DOM implementations 
than the Gecko DOM.  For example, the documentation and tutorial for JScript 
and the MSHTML DOM, the programming language and DOM API in Internet 
Explorer-based applications, respectively, can be found in the MSDN Library 
instead.

Links to reference material other than books can be found in the FAQs for 
this newsgroup. [2]  In fact, books are the resources that are the least 
recommended there for good reasons.

_______
[1] <http://PointedEars.de/es-matrix>
[2] <http://PointedEars.de/faq> contains a maintained, currently only
    slightly modified version of <http://jibbering.com/f; the latter
    is not maintained since 2010.  See the changelog for details.
-- 
PointedEars

Twitter: @PointedEars2
Please do not Cc: me. / Bitte keine Kopien per E-Mail.

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Javascript: TDG 6th edition Andrew <andrew@invalid.invalid> - 2013-05-06 07:53 -0400
  Re: Javascript: TDG 6th edition Scott Sauyet <scott.sauyet@gmail.com> - 2013-05-06 06:46 -0700
    Re: Javascript: TDG 6th edition Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2013-05-06 18:10 +0200
      Re: Javascript: TDG 6th edition Andrew <andrew@invalid.invalid> - 2013-05-07 07:42 -0400
        Re: Javascript: TDG 6th edition Scott Sauyet <scott.sauyet@gmail.com> - 2013-05-07 05:54 -0700
          Re: Javascript: TDG 6th edition Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2013-05-07 19:48 +0200
            Re: Javascript: TDG 6th edition Scott Sauyet <scott.sauyet@gmail.com> - 2013-05-07 12:53 -0700
              Re: Javascript: TDG 6th edition Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2013-05-07 22:48 +0200
                Re: Javascript: TDG 6th edition Scott Sauyet <scott.sauyet@gmail.com> - 2013-05-07 14:02 -0700
                Re: Javascript: TDG 6th edition Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2013-05-08 10:11 +0200
                Re: Javascript: TDG 6th edition Scott Sauyet <scott.sauyet@gmail.com> - 2013-05-09 08:33 -0700
                Re: Javascript: TDG 6th edition Tim Streater <timstreater@greenbee.net> - 2013-05-09 16:54 +0100
                Re: Javascript: TDG 6th edition Scott Sauyet <scott.sauyet@gmail.com> - 2013-05-09 13:02 -0700
                Re: Javascript: TDG 6th edition Tim Streater <timstreater@greenbee.net> - 2013-05-09 22:38 +0100
                Re: Javascript: TDG 6th edition Dr J R Stockton <reply1300@merlyn.demon.co.uk.invalid> - 2013-05-10 20:03 +0100
                Re: Javascript: TDG 6th edition MC <news@aisus.com> - 2013-05-17 11:04 -0500
                Re: Javascript: TDG 6th edition Andrew Poulos <ap_prog@hotmail.com> - 2013-05-18 13:09 +1000
                Re: Javascript: TDG 6th edition Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2013-05-18 10:40 +0200
                Re: Javascript: TDG 6th edition John Harris <niam@jghnorth.org.uk.invalid> - 2013-05-18 10:16 +0100
                Re: Javascript: TDG 6th edition Andrew Poulos <ap_prog@hotmail.com> - 2013-05-18 20:14 +1000
                Re: Javascript: TDG 6th edition MC <news@aisus.com> - 2013-05-18 10:11 -0500
                Re: Javascript: TDG 6th edition Dr J R Stockton <reply1300@merlyn.demon.co.uk.invalid> - 2013-05-20 19:58 +0100
                Re: Javascript: TDG 6th edition Tim Streater <timstreater@greenbee.net> - 2013-05-07 22:03 +0100
            Re: Javascript: TDG 6th edition Scott Sauyet <scott.sauyet@gmail.com> - 2013-05-07 13:02 -0700
              Re: Javascript: TDG 6th edition Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2013-05-07 22:50 +0200
                Re: Javascript: TDG 6th edition Scott Sauyet <scott.sauyet@gmail.com> - 2013-05-07 14:03 -0700
            Re: Javascript: TDG 6th edition John Harris <niam@jghnorth.org.uk.invalid> - 2013-05-07 21:39 +0100
            Re: Javascript: TDG 6th edition Cezary Tomczyk <cezary.tomczyk@gmail.com> - 2013-05-08 00:10 -0700
              Re: Javascript: TDG 6th edition Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2013-05-08 09:51 +0200
            Re: Javascript: TDG 6th edition Luuk <luuk@invalid.lan> - 2013-05-09 23:36 +0200
          Re: Javascript: TDG 6th edition MC <news@aisus.com> - 2013-05-17 08:59 -0500
      Re: Javascript: TDG 6th edition Joao Rodrigues <groups_jr-1@yahoo.com.br> - 2013-05-21 00:50 -0300
        Re: Javascript: TDG 6th edition Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2013-05-21 12:50 +0200
    Re: Javascript: TDG 6th edition Andrew <andrew@invalid.invalid> - 2013-05-07 07:25 -0400

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