Authors: Ian Truslove

JavaScript has enjoyed both fame and infamy since its creation in 1994. From `window.alert()` abuse, copy-and-paste coding, and identity confusion with jQuery, to Node.js and the re-emergence of server-side JavaScript, the current slew of MVC-like frameworks for the browser, and the development of ECMAScript 6, JavaScript has a rich and interesting history and continues to become more necessary for web software development than ever. This presentation aims to dispel some myths about JavaScript for the uninitiated, introduce some recent and interesting technologies emerging from the JavaScript community, and dive into a number of techniques and tools to help write well-structured, maintainable JavaScript code. In this session we will cover JavaScript's scope, object model and functional aspects, a few of JavaScript's more amusing "bad parts", some commonly-used JavaScript patterns, tools and libraries for building, testing and deploying JavaScript code, techniques and tools to ensure cross-browser compatibility, an overview of two server-side JavaScript implementations (Node.js and PhantomJS), and take a look at the future of JavaScript: ECMAScript 6, aka "Harmony".