Makersquare Obscure Javascript Terminology

Front 1

=>

a.k.a. "fat arrow"

Back 1

ES6 feature taken from coffeescript.

"var coolFunction =
x => x * x;"
is the same as

"var coolFunction =
function(x) {return x * x}.bind(this);"

Front 2

isomorphic javascript

Back 2

JavaScript application written in a way that shares client-side and server-side code.

A huge benefit of isomorphic JavaScript is that it can render a page that requires JavaScript code on the server and serve it up to the client much faster.

Front 3

EcmaScript 2015

Back 3

The official name for ES6, because after ES6 Ecma will publish new versions of EcmaScript every year. ES7 will be ES 2016.

Front 4

Rendr

Back 4

A JavaScript library which makes Backbone.js apps isomorphic.

Front 5

End-to-end testing

a.k.a. E2E

Back 5

A design technique in which you test an entire user session spanning multiple pages.

Front 6

Antipattern

Back 6

A design pattern which is ultimately counterproductive.

Front 7

ORM

Back 7

Object Relational Mapping. A type of service which acts as a mediator between the front-end developer and the database, providing a friendlier interface than direct database queries.

Some ORMs can even extend the functionality of the database.

Front 8

three.js

Back 8

A JavaScript library which provides an API for making WebGL (3D rendering in the browser which directly connects to the users' video card).

Front 9

asm.js

Back 9

A compiler which translates C or C++ code into JavaScript in an intelligent way which often results in faster code than the same functionality written in vanilla JS.

Created by Mozilla.

Front 10

TSC

a.k.a. TypeScript

Back 10

A "typed superset of JavaScript" which compiles to JavaScript, like CoffeeScript.

TypeScript allows coders to define the type of a variable and throw an error if it is accidentally set to a value of a different type.

Front 11

traceur

Back 11

An ES6 to ES5 compiler.

Front 12

6to5

a.k.a. Babel

Back 12

An ES6 to ES5 compiler.

Front 13

Shim

Back 13

A library that brings a new API to an older environment. For example, 6to5 and Babel are Shims that translate ES6 code to ES5.

Front 14

Polyfill

Back 14

A library that brings a new API to an older environment in the browser. For example, 6to5 and Babel are Shims that translate ES6 code to ES5.

A polyfill is a type of shim that works in the browser.

Front 15

Lo-Dash

Back 15

Started as a fork of Underscore.js, Lo-Dash is extremely similar. Its file size is larger and it used to be faster than Underscore.js, but now they are comparable.

Front 16

Sails

a.k.a. Sails.js

Back 16

A JavaScript MVC framework designed to mimic frameworks like Ruby on Rails. Features easy setup, lots of websockets support and the unusual ORM WaterLine, which can interact with multiple types of databases at once.

Front 17

Hammer.js

Back 17

A library for adding touch controls to your web application. Used by huge companies like Netflix. Named after the M.C. Hammer song "Can't touch this."

Front 18

Flow

Back 18

Facebook's testing tool which checks types in JavaScript. Detects types as they are defined, tracks them across all the .js files in your application, and makes tests fail if the type would change.

Not the same thing as the angular module ng-flow.

Front 19

GraphQL

Back 19

Data querying language for React which maps data types in a structure similar to a giant JSON object to make data fetching verifiable and more efficient. Used in conjunction with Relay.

Made by Facebook.

Front 20

Relay

Back 20

Data-fetching framework for React which uses GraphQL queries to specify data dependencies for each component.

Made by Facebook.