Programming in CoffeeScript

  Use CoffeeScript to Write Better JavaScript Code Than Ever Before!
 
If you can do it in JavaScript, you can do it better in CoffeeScript. And, since CoffeeScript “compiles down” to JavaScript, your code will fit neatly into virtually any web environment. In Programming in CoffeeScript, Mark Bates shows web developers why CoffeeScript is so useful and how it avoids the problems that often make JavaScript code buggy and unmanageable. He guides you through every feature and technique you need to write quality CoffeeScript code and shows how to take advantage of CoffeeScript's increasingly robust toolset.
 
Bates begins with the absolute basics of running and compiling CoffeeScript and then introduces syntax, control structures, functions, collections, and classes. Through same page code comparisons, you'll discover exactly how CoffeeScript improves on JavaScript. Next, you'll put it to work in building applications that are powerful, flexible, maintainable, concise, reliable, and secure. Bates shares valuable tips for better development, illuminating CoffeeScript's hidden gems and warning you about its remaining “rough edges.” The book concludes with a start-to-finish application case study showing how to code back-ends and front-ends and integrate powerful frameworks and libraries. Coverage includes

• Understanding the right ways to compile and execute CoffeeScript
• Using CoffeeScript's clean syntax to focus on your code, not JavaScript's distractions
• Working with CoffeeScript's control structures, functions, and arguments
• Taking full advantage of CoffeeScript's implementation of collections and iterators
• Leveraging CoffeeScript's full class support to create complex data models
• Automating common application development tasks with Cake and Cakefiles
• Configuring Jasmine with CoffeeScript support, and using it to systematically test your code
• Writing Node.js server-side applications in CoffeeScript
• Using CoffeeScript to write jQuery and Backbone.js applications
• Integrating framework code to avoid “reinventing the wheel”

Want a better way to create the JavaScript code your web applications need? CoffeeScript is the solution-and this book will help you master it!

List of contents

Dedication    v
Acknowledgments    xii
About the Author    xiv
Preface    xv
What Is CoffeeScript?    xvii
Who Is This Book For?    xix
How to Read This Book    xix
How This Book Is Organized    xxi
Part I: Core CoffeeScript    xxii
Part II: CoffeeScript in Practice    xxii
Installing CoffeeScript    xxiii
How to Run the Examples    xxiii
Notes    xxiv
Part I: Core CoffeeScript
1  Getting Started    3
The CoffeeScript REPL    3
In-Browser Compilation    6
Caveats    7
Command-Line Compilation    7
The compile Flag    7
The CoffeeScript CLI    8
The output Flag    9
The bare Flag    9
The print Flag    10
The watch Flag    10
Executing CoffeeScript Files    11
Other Options    11
Wrapping Up    12
Notes    12
2  The Basics    13
Syntax    13
Significant Whitespace    14
Function Keyword    16
Parentheses    16
Scope and Variables    18
Variable Scope in JavaScript    18
Variable Scope in CoffeeScript    19
The Anonymous Wrapper Function    20
Interpolation    23
String Interpolation    23
Interpolated Strings    23
Literal Strings    25
Heredocs    28
Comments    29
Inline Comments    29
Block Comments    30
Extended Regular Expressions    31
Wrapping Up    31
Notes    32
3  Control Structures    33
Operators and Aliases    33
Arithmetic    33
Assignment    35
Comparison    39
String    42
The Existential Operator    43
Aliases    46
The is and isnt Aliases    47
The not Alias    48
The and and or Aliases    49
The Boolean Aliases    50
The @ Alias    51
If/Unless    52
The if Statement    53
The if/else Statement    54
The if/else if Statement    56
The unless Statement    58
Inline Conditionals    60
Switch/Case Statements    60
Wrapping Up    63
Notes    63
4  Functions and Arguments    65
Function Basics    68
Arguments    70
Default Arguments    72
Splats...    75
Wrapping Up    79
Notes    79
5  Collections and Iterations    81
Arrays    81
Testing Inclusion    83
Swapping Assignment    85
Multiple Assignment aka Destructing Assignment    86
Ranges    90
Slicing Arrays    92
Replacing Array Values    94
Injecting Values    95
Objects/Hashes    96
Getting/Setting Attributes    101
Destructuring Assignment    103
Loops and Iteration    105
Iterating Arrays    105
The by Keyword    106
The when Keyword    107
Iterating Objects    108
The by Keyword    109
The when Keyword    109
The own Keyword    110
while Loops    113
until Loops    114
Comprehensions    116
The do Keyword    119
Wrapping Up    120
Notes    121
6  Classes    123
Defining Classes    123
Defining Functions    125
The constructor Function    126
Scope in Classes    127
Extending Classes    137
Class-Level Functions    145
Prototype Functions    150
Binding (-> Versus =>)    151
Wrapping Up    158
Notes    158
Part II: CoffeeScript in Practice
7  Cake and Cakefiles    161
Getting Started    161
Creating Cake Tasks    162
Running Cake Tasks    163
Using Options    163
Invoking Other Tasks    167
Wrapping Up    169
Notes    170
8  Testing with Jasmine    171
Installing Jasmine    172
Setting Up Jasmine    172
Introduction to Jasmine    175
Unit Testing    176
Before and After    181
Custom Matchers    187
Wrapping Up    190
Notes    191
9  Intro to Node.js    193
What Is Node.js?    193
Installing Node    194
Getting Started    195
Streaming Responses    197
Building a CoffeeScript Server    199
Trying Out the Server    214
Wrapping Up    215
Notes    215
10  Example: Todo List Part    1 (Server-side)    217
Installing and Setting Up Express    218
Setting Up MongoDB Using Mongoose    222
Writing the Todo API    225
Querying with Mongoose    226
Finding All Todos    227
Creating New Todos    228
Getting, Updating, and Destroying a Todo    230
Cleaning Up the Controller    232
Wrapping Up    236
Notes    236
11  Example: Todo List Part    2 (Client-side w/ jQuery)    237
Priming the HTML with Twitter Bootstrap    237
Interacting with jQuery    240
Hooking Up the New Todo Form    242
Cleaning Up the Todo List with Underscore.js
Templates    244
Listing Existing Todos    247
Updating Todos    248
Deleting Todos    252
Wrapping Up    253
Notes    253
12  Example: Todo List Part    3 (Client-side w/ Backbone.js)    255
What Is Backbone.js?    255
Cleaning Up    256
Setting Up Backbone.js    256
Writing our Todo Model and Collection    260
Listing Todos Using a View    263
Creating New Todos    265
A View per Todo    268
Updating and Validating Models from Views    270
Validation    272
Deleting Models from Views    273
Wrapping Up    275
Notes    275
Index    277
 
 

About the author

Mark Bates is the founder and chief architect of the Boston-based consulting company Meta42 Labs. Mark spends his days focusing on new application development and consulting for his clients. At night he writes books, raises kids, and occasionally he forms a band and “tries to make it.”
 
Mark has been writing web applications, in one form or another, since 1996. His career started as a UI developer writing HTML and JavaScript applications before moving toward the middle(ware) with Java and Ruby. Nowadays, Mark spends his days cheating on Ruby with his new mistress, CoffeeScript.
 
Always wanting to share his wisdom, or more correctly just wanting to hear the sound of his own voice, Mark has spoken at several high-profile conferences, including RubyConf, RailsConf, and jQueryConf. Mark has also taught classes on Ruby and Ruby on Rails. In 2009 Mark's first (surprisingly not his last!) book, Distributed Programming with Ruby, was published by Addison-Wesley.
 
Mark lives just outside of Boston with his wife, Rachel, and their two sons, Dylan and Leo. Mark can be found on the web at: http://www.markbates.com, http://twitter.com/markbates, and http://github.com/markbates.

Summary

Use CoffeeScript to Write Better JavaScript Code Than Ever Before!
 
If you can do it in JavaScript, you can do it better in CoffeeScript. And, since CoffeeScript “compiles down” to JavaScript, your code will fit neatly into virtually any web environment. In Programming in CoffeeScript, Mark Bates shows web developers why CoffeeScript is so useful and how it avoids the problems that often make JavaScript code buggy and unmanageable. He guides you through every feature and technique you need to write quality CoffeeScript code and shows how to take advantage of CoffeeScript's increasingly robust toolset.
 
Bates begins with the absolute basics of running and compiling CoffeeScript and then introduces syntax, control structures, functions, collections, and classes. Through same page code comparisons, you'll discover exactly how CoffeeScript improves on JavaScript. Next, you'll put it to work in building applications that are powerful, flexible, maintainable, concise, reliable, and secure. Bates shares valuable tips for better development, illuminating CoffeeScript's hidden gems and warning you about its remaining “rough edges.” The book concludes with a start-to-finish application case study showing how to code back-ends and front-ends and integrate powerful frameworks and libraries. Coverage includes

• Understanding the right ways to compile and execute CoffeeScript
• Using CoffeeScript's clean syntax to focus on your code, not JavaScript's distractions
• Working with CoffeeScript's control structures, functions, and arguments
• Taking full advantage of CoffeeScript's implementation of collections and iterators
• Leveraging CoffeeScript's full class support to create complex data models
• Automating common application development tasks with Cake and Cakefiles
• Configuring Jasmine with CoffeeScript support, and using it to systematically test your code
• Writing Node.js server-side applications in CoffeeScript
• Using CoffeeScript to write jQuery and Backbone.js applications
• Integrating framework code to avoid “reinventing the wheel”

Want a better way to create the JavaScript code your web applications need? CoffeeScript is the solution-and this book will help you master it!

 

Product details

• Authors: Mark Bates
• Publisher: Pearson Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.12.2017
• EAN: 9780321820105
• ISBN: 978-0-321-82010-5
• No. of pages: 320
• Weight: 510 g
• Series: Developer's Library; Addison-Wesley; Addison-Wesley
• Subject: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > IT, data processing > Programming languages