Welcome to this new series reviewing the new Pluralsight course JavaScript Best Practices by Jonathan Mills.

Jonathan is a JavaScript and Node.js expert working mostly in the MEAN Stack with individuals and companies to help build their technical skills to cope with the constantly changing landscape of software development.

He is also an ASP.NET insider and an international speaker focusing on JavaScript both in the browser and on the server.

Also in this series:

Part 1: Why Best Practices
Part 2: Syntax
Part 3: Behaviors
Part 4: Async Patterns
Part 5: Production Code

In this first part, we focus on the question: Why Best Practices?

JavaScript Best Practices

Jonathan says the term best is nebulous at best at wrong at worst! So he begins the course explaining why we should consider best practices.

For most developers, JavaScript is a second language, however JavaScript is starting to take over everything, because traditional client server web applications cannot match the user experience that Single Page Applications offer.

JavaScript is also taking over the server with the rise of platforms such as Node JS, and it is taking over mobile as well with frameworks like Cordova and React Native.

Don’t Code in a Vacuum

It’s important to take advantage of other developer’s experience, but it’s also important not to believe everything that we read.
One of the objectives of the course is to filter some of the online debates and arm ourselves with solid knowledge.

Write Code in a Maintainable Way

Jonathan wants us to avoid the 0.01% of issues that suck up hours of our time.

The course will explain one of the most misunderstood aspects of JavaScript: the “this” keyword.

It also discusses how to avoid the situation of looking back on our old code and not understanding it anymore – by writing code that is more maintainable.

We also want to ensure that our whole team is abiding by standard practices and principles to make it easier for everybody to maintain each others code.

Rules of the Road

Jonathan explains that he won’t just be saying what the best practices are, but why they may or may not be best practices for us.

Continue to Part 2 – Syntax