So far so good…

The classes have been fun so far and engaging, however the upcoming work is starting to seem harder… I guess we are learning.

Describe one thing you’re learning in class today.

Today we learned how to implement unit testing, and I can see the advantages of it. I still need to dive further into them to try and grasp how they work better.

What is "use strict";? What are the advantages and disadvantages to using it?

“The “use strict” directive was new in ECMAScript version 5. It is not a statement, but a literal expression, ignored by earlier versions of JavaScript.” It indicates that the code should be executed in strict mode, an example of strict mode is that you cannot use undeclared values in your code.

Explain function hoisting in JavaScript.

“Hoisting is JavaScript’s default behavior of moving all declarations to the top of the current scope (to the top of the current script or the current function).”

Explain the importance of standards and standards bodies like ECMA.

It helps create an open world where information is available to everyone. It helps to push the technology world forward by providing people of all different backgrounds the ability to access the same information and learn with the same tools. Essentially it can help to level the playing field and prevent information monopolies.

What actions have you personally taken on recent projects to increase maintainability of your code?

Not too often do I go back and optimize what I had written, but in the few times I have I usually attempt to remove instances that I repeat code and clean up the environment so I can see what I was trying to do. This involves fixing the spacing and often adding comments to explain what is going on.

Why is it, in general, a good idea to leave the global scope of a website as-is and never touch it?

Variables declared outside of the global scope can be accessed by all the scripts and functions on a web page. This may be problematic in a way I fully don’t understand yet.