Austin JavaScript

Superclassy Inheritance with JavaScript + Web Performance and JavaScript UI Architecture

2010-01-19T00:00:00Z

2010 is off to a ridiculous start for the JavaScript community and this month, we have TWO incredible topics and two renowned and respected speakers: Alex Sexton and Kyle Simpson.

Superclassy Inheritance with JavaScript

Superclassy Inheritance with JavaScript is a quick look at the benefits and consequences of several inheritance patterns in JavaScript. Code reuse plays a major role in the DRY development pattern and leveraging the inheritance patterns built into JavaScript or manipulating them can change the way you build and organize large applications. Unfortunately, JavaScript's reputation and odd naming scheme have stopped people from using all the features that it has to offer. First, we'll discuss the array of options that exist and then go through a real-world example while using our newly honed inheritance-foo to make it play nice.

Web Performance and JavaScript UI Architecture

Kyle will cover a couple of recent endeavors of mine into improving page- load performance on web sites. One is a set of experiments in various ways to deliver JavaScript code to the browser but to defer its execution until later. Such techniques are particularly well suited to mobile applications, but have some benefit to traditional browser apps as well. The other endeavor is a new site/service just launched at http://2static.it -- a service to provide free sub-domain aliases to create a cookie-free URL to load your static page assets (JS, CSS, images, SWFs, etc).

As time permits, Kyle will also give an intro/preview to both my upcoming talk at Developer-Day Austin and my upcoming talk at SXSW Interactive, on JavaScript UI Architecture. We'll cover a new theory/approach to UI architecture I'm calling CVC (Client-View-Controller), which is a deconstructed variation on the more common MVC pattern. It involves a simple template engine (written in JavaScript) which can run either on the server or in the browser, as well as several JavaScript based "controller" modules.

JavaScript Quiz + HandlebarJS

2010-02-16T00:00:00Z

JavaScript Quiz

Speaker: YOU. Yes, that's right, you will be participating, okay, only if you want to, but it is highly encouraged.

Recently, Juriy Zaytsev, otherwise known as "kangax" and core developer for Prototype, released a quiz with some rather challenging questions related to some of the unique underpinnings and nuances of the JavaScript language.

We will take the quiz, collectively, and even go through the answers, collectively! Group participation is key here as the more people contribute, the more people learn.

JavaScript instance operators, HandlebarJS Templating

Kyle Simpson will continue the discussions from the JavaScript quizzes and zero in on a few powerful but often-confused JavaScript operators: new, delete, and instanceof. To illustrate the use of these operators, we'll look at a pattern for custom error handling.

Armed with a new found confidence in some of JavaScript's nitty gritty details, we'll take a look at a new templating engine (HandlebarJS) which can run either browser-side or server-side. Coverage will include both the templating syntax as well as a code review of the engine's internals.

Afterwards, the discussion carries on one block away at The Draught House, where it just happens to be pint night so you can get your beer fix here.

Building Desktop Applications Using Adobe AIR and JavaScript

2010-04-20T00:00:00Z

After a massively successful SXSWi party last month, we are back on schedule for our monthly meetup. This month, we have a presentation on how to use Adobe AIR to build desktop applications by Aaron Forsander.

Building Desktop Applications Using Adobe AIR and JavaScript

As a JavaScript developer you don't have to limit yourself to the web. Adobe AIR allows web developers to create desktop applications with technologies they are familiar with including Flash, Flex and JavaScript. This talk demonstrates the basics on how to create desktop applications entirely in JavaScript. I addition, I will also talk about helpful libraries and frameworks that allow you to develop rapidly, organize your code and unit test. You can do more with Adobe AIR than just build Twitter clients, I promise!

XUI + Cross Domain Hacking

2010-06-15T00:00:00Z

Right on heels of TXJS, this month's edition of the Austin JavaScript Meetup includes two speakers from TXJS, Joe McCann and Alex Sexton.

XUI

Joe will be discussing the slick mobile micro-framework, XUI, which you can use to build out mobile websites or even mobile webapps where the targeted device is running a reasonable build of Webkit (namely iPhone, Android, and WebOS). Popular libraries like jQuery are a bit large in size and contain loads of cross-browser code that is irrelevant in most mobile devices. XUI is only 3kb and can provide you with a large enough toolkit to get almost any job done. Joe will introduce the library and how you can start using it right now.

Cross Domain Hacking

If you had to rank the best and worst moments of your JavaScript life, you'd probably rank reading "The Good Parts" up towards the top, and deep down at the bottom of the list would be the day that you found out that you couldn't make cross-domain requests in the browser. This talk covers the hacks, tips, and tricks to leave the Same Origin Policy in the dust. So grab a cookie, pad your json, and learn how to communicate properly.

Introducing Node.js + Scripty

2010-07-20T00:00:00Z

The July meetup details consist of some client side and server side JavaScript discussions. Joe McCann will be providing some info on the ultra hot web server and web app framework Node.js while Andrew Dupont educates us on the latest and greatest features of scripty2.

Introducing Node.js

Joe will be introducing Node.js, an evented I/O framework for the V8 JavaScript engine. Node.js is intended to be used to write scalable network programs such as web servers. However, Node can also be used as a web app framework in addition to its use as a web server. Joe will be showing some very high level uses of Node (Hello World), but also some more practical uses including the use of the Express framework and even an example of using WebSockets with Node.

Scripty — Successor to script.aculo.us

The long alpha period of scripty2, the successor to script.aculo.us, is nearing a close. Andrew will give a tour of the new scripty2 effects engine — complete with support for CSS transitions and hardware-accelerated animation — and show you the new UI components which boast full compatibility with jQuery UI themes.

Web Application Design and Coding Strategies

2010-08-17T00:00:00Z

After a huge turnout last month (nearly 40 attendees), we are expecting even bigger and better things this coming month in our August meetup. We are changing the format a bit with one presentation, by Mike McNally on web application design and coding strategies, followed by an open forum of topics.

Mike will talk about web application design and coding strategies, and how the domains of "active" page design, unobtrusive Javascript coding, and user experience architecture all collide to give us a great big headache. He'll talk about a small jQuery plugin as an example of harnessing the power of your favorite framework for more than just rounded corners.

After some great discussions during our last meetup (and even afterwards at The Gingerman), we decided to have an open forum discussing various topics at this month's meetup. Topics will be chosen at random, but please come to the meetup with some ideas or better yet, leave them in the comments or @ reply to @austinjs on twitter.

JavaScript Objects, Constructors, and Prototypes

2010-09-21T00:00:00Z

After another huge turnout in August, we are expecting yet another great meetup for September. We have an Austin JavaScript veteran, Kyle Simpson, giving a special presentation and we will follow it up with the open forum of topics. So come prepared with ideas for discussion!

Kyle's discussion will be diving deep into the internals of how objects, constructors, and prototypes work. He will also cover many of the important upcoming ES5 changes which are starting to be implemented by the bleeding edge browsers.

Phonegap + Rapid Prototyping with JavaScript

2010-10-19T00:00:00Z

Coming off last month's meetup, we now have the first in our guest speakers series at Austin JavaScript plus another local giving his presentation from JSConf EU in Berlin.

Phonegap

Brian Leroux, Lead at Nitobi, co-author of Phonegap, and creator of projects like XUI and Lawnchair and wtfjs.com will be flying in from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada to talk to us about Phonegap, an open source development framework for building cross-platform mobile apps. Phonegap allows you to build apps in HTML and JavaScript and still take advantage of core features in iPhone/iTouch, iPad, Google Android, Palm, Symbian and Blackberry SDKs. Brian will be giving a talk on Phonegap, when you should and should not use it and also showcase the brand new app packaging in the cloud service at build.phonegap.com.

Rapid Prototyping with JavaScript

Joe McCann, Senior Technologist at frog design and Principal at subPrint Interactive will be giving his presentation on Rapid Prototyping with JavaScript for Multiple Platforms that he gave in Berlin at JSConf.Eu. Read the comprehensive description of his talk here and go check out the source code for the apps for the demos on github.

has.js, Dojo Foundation, and the CommonJSBrowser Initiative

2010-11-16T00:00:00Z

After last month's large turnout for the first in our guest speaker's series, you may want to consider getting to this month's meetup early. Not only are we bringing back the roundtable discussion of various JavaScript topics, but we have the Reverend Pete Higgins flying in from Tennessee!

Every time you sniff a browser a baby kitten dies. Never fear as Pete will be discussing the usage of has.js so many more kittens can live happy lives. Also, Pete will be chatting up the Dojo Foundation and a brand new CommonJSBrowser Initiative (details at the meetup!). Follow Pete on twitter at @phiggins and be sure to have a look at his campaign at http://higginsforpresident.net.

For the second half of the meetup we will carry on with our new tradition of the open forum where you, yes you and everyone else will have an opportunity to ask a question, bring up a topic or heckle @joemccann. Our latest polls indicate many people enjoy the roundtable discussion so be sure to have some fresh ideas!

JavaScript Gaming

2011-01-18T00:00:00Z

After a nice break and great happy hour sponsored by Tek Systems over December, Austin JavaScript is back in action with a great talk by the local node.js and JavaScript gaming phenom, Bradley Meck.

JavaScript gaming is becoming an even hotter topic as many game developers are moving away from Flash and more towards and "HTML5" framework for implementing games. Bradley will be discussing the state of game creation in JavaScript, some problems and solutions for developers wanting to create games and finally how to interact with Flash in order to obtain some valuable fallbacks. His presentation will also touch on some of the roadblocks and issues with multi-player games.

Of course we will followup his presentation with our wildly crowd-pleasing roundtable of JavaScript-related questions. This is an open forum to present topics of discussion in a rapid-fire manner or simply heckle @joemccann.

Lettering.js — A jQuery Plugin for Radical Web Typography

2011-02-15T00:00:00Z

This month's meetup we take a step away from the traditionally hardcore, engineering-focused styles talks and presentations and decide to focus back on the user interface and beautifying the web, specifically typography. Neighborhood superstar, Rails aficionado and iOS contemporary Dave Rupert will be discussing and showcasing, Lettering.js.

Web type is exploding all over the web but CSS currently doesn't offer complete down-to-the-letter control. While working on the Lost World's Fairs project for Microsoft and the launch of IE9 Beta, Dave Rupert and team needed that level of control. Thus was born, Lettering.js, a jQuery plugin for radical web typography.

We'll be walking through this simple jQuery plugin line-by-line, talking about the art of releasing a jQuery plugin, and peeking at some real-world use cases.

The Art of Releasing a jQuery Plugin + Next Gen JavaScript

2011-04-19T00:00:00Z

After a massively successful SXSW Party last month, we are back on track with our regular scheduled monthly meetup. For April, we have a brief yet insightful presentation by a local, Howard Rauscher on developing 3rd party JavaScript widgets and we'll talk more about the IE9 Developer contest, Dev Unplugged.

Recently he started working at a new startup called Mass Relevance which provides social media curation and visualizations to media companies such MTV, New York Times, Washington Post, and CNN . One of his primary roles has been to ensure that their JavaScript widgets don't break across majors browsers on customer websites. Howard's presentation will consist of walking through a simple jQuery plugin (line-by-line), talking about the art of releasing a jQuery plugin and peeking at some real-world use cases. Noobs and experts will both benefit!

We will also discuss the IE9 developer contest, Dev Unplugged, which was announced at the Austin JS SXSW Party last month. Dev Unplugged is not a just a contest where you can win thousands of dollars in prizes, but it also a way for developers to really explore what is possible with HTML5 and modern web browsers. As if you needed a reason to be trying out the latest and greatest, Dev Unplugged will reward you for doing so!

Since Austin is the Live Music Capital of the World, the IE9 team has enticed us to do something cool with the HTML5 Music capabilities. Here are some ideas to get you going:

http://gskinner.com/blog/archives/2011/03/music-visualizer-in-html5-js-with-source-code.html

http://9elements.com/io/projects/html5/canvas/

http://always-beautiful.bigspaceship.com

Dev Unplugged has a music category for the best “music experience”. Developers may use their own legally licensed music or the the IE9 Team has provided two tracks for you to experiment with: “Sail” by AWOLNATION and “Boy” by RaRaRiot. Read more about it here:

http://www.beautyoftheweb.com/#/unplugged/categories/music

Special Update

Last minute special guests are always welcome at the Austin JavaScript Meetup and this month, we have an extra special guest from the Mozilla team: David Herman.

David's a member of Ecma TC39, the committee designing future versions of the JavaScript language standard. The Ecma committee is hard at work on the design of the next version of JavaScript. David will present some highlights of the cool features we can expect in the future of JavaScript.

Of course we still have everything in store for you as previously planned, but now with some lagniappe!

Modernizr 2

2011-05-17T00:00:00Z

On the heels of the epic conference week that was JSConfand Nodeconf, the Austin JS meetup is finally set for the the month of May. We will be going over some of the highlights of JSConf and local JavaScript hacker and semi-pro videographer, Alex Sexton, will be giving a talk on what to expect out of Modernizr 2.0. We will also be giving away a ticket to TXJS. Seriously.

Modernizr was one of the first libraries on the scene in the 'new-world feature testing religion.' Modernizr 2 is just around the corner and there are some nifty new features in there to help you build modern web apps. Some time would and will be well spent going into how to use Modernizr, but there will also be some more in depth looks into the internals of the core library, build tool, Modernizr.load and into how to extend all of these things for great good. HTML5 today. Straight up.

Did we mention we are giving away a ticket to TXJS? It's sold out, btw.

Test-Driving JavaScript with Jasmine

2011-06-21T00:00:00Z

Wrapping up the amazing conference that was TXJS, this month TXJS frontman, Alex Sexton will be hosting June's meetup. We also have Austin local via Chicago, Tim Tyrrell chatting up Jasmine, the uber-cool JavaScript unit testing framework.

There seems to be a tendency for developers to do an excellent job of unit testing their server-side code but leaving client-side javascript as the new “spaghetti” dumping ground and it doesn’t have to be that way! Jasmine is a nifty Javascript BDD testing framework with a RSpec-like syntax that easily integrates with vanilla JavaScript, jQuery plugins, and even Rails applications.

Of course we will followup all of this up with our wildly crowd-pleasing roundtable of JavaScript-related questions. This is an open forum to present topics of discussion in a rapid-fire manner.

Realtime Web Apps with Node.js and Socket.io + Couchbase App

2011-07-19T00:00:00Z

UPDATE 07/19/11 :: Meeting moved to 7:45pm to accomodate the owners of our space.

It's hot. We know. But don't fret, this month, we'll have plenty of cold beverages (courtesy of Compass Learning) alongside a talk by local web developer, Aaron Forsander (no really, he will be here this time!).

Realtime Web Apps with Node.js and Socket.io

Node.js and Socket.io have made web sockets ridiculously easy to implement. Creating real-time web applications has never been easier. Couple that with the fact that most new phones have GPS and you've got the potential for some really cool interactivity. In this talk Aaron will be discussing building realtime mobile web applications and demo a really amazing Android app called Zombie Run and how he's porting it to the web using Node.js and Socket.io.

UPDATE:: 7/15/11

Also (surprise!) joining us will be J Chris Anderson from Couchbase!

Chris was one of the early committers to the Apache CouchDB project and has been working on CouchDB for over 3 years. He's watched CouchDB grow from unknown to a widely deployed and trusted database, now used by large organizations such as the BBC and CERN as well as small organizations like Dimagi using CouchDB on smartphones in rural Africa. Chris has a unique perspective from being involved in all aspects of Couchbase, he is deep into technology but equally involved in the business side of Couchbase

JavaScript CouchApps Hackalong: jQuery, Couchbase, and a Chat App in 30 minutes or less

Couchbase is an HTTP server (as well as a database) so it can serve apps directly to the browser. In this talk, we'll build an HTML5 app on Couchbase, at a pace that anyone who knows basic JavaScript will be able to keep up with. At the end we'll create an ad-hoc cluster so we can all chat across the distributed system. I'll talk a little about how you can use the same techniques for serious apps, not just fun chat toys.

Of course we will followup all of this up with our wildly crowd-pleasing roundtable of JavaScript-related questions. This is an open forum to present topics of discussion in a rapid-fire manner.

And bonus time, with Joe travelling the world, Alex Sexton will be hosting the meetup again!

The Fundamentals of JavaScript and jQuery

2011-08-16T00:00:00Z

After last month's massive turnout, it is officially clear that the only way to beat the Austin heat is to come to the Austin JavaScript meetup (duh). With that being said, we are expecting all of you to return for this month's installment of the meetup as we have local living legend, Mike Cravey, here to serve up the fundamentals of JavaScript and jQuery.

Mike's talk will focus on the fundamentals of JavaScript the language. Think you know it all? We guarantee you will learn something new, unless you are @andrewdupont BECAUSE HE KNOWS ALL #dupontCAPS. Moreover, the introductory talk with cover things like function hoisting and closures, but even simpler topics like basic expressions. Noobs are certainly welcome so if you are one or know someone, be sure they attend. The presentation will be a quick one, so feel free to chime in while Cravey runs the show.

Of course we will followup all of this up with our wildly crowd-pleasing roundtable of JavaScript-related questions. This is an open forum to present topics of discussion in a rapid-fire manner.

Since [Joe][3] is still on gypsy status, Alex Sexton will be hosting the meetup again!

Using ApplicationCache to Speed Up Page Loads and Lawnchair.js For Storing Offline Data

2011-09-20T00:00:00Z

September's meetup welcome's back local node.js hacker, Bradley Meck but this time Bradley is bringing his partner in crime, Kassandra Perch, to talk about not only a buzzword-worthy topic, but also one a topic that is incredibly useful — offline web apps.

Offline features are more than just for when you application is offline or for viewing content offline! Bradley and Kassandra will be discussing how to use ApplicationCache to speed up page loads and Lawnchair.js for storing offline data. They will have an example using Backbone.js' ORM to have an offline application send requests with updated data to a server after it has been offline w/o user interaction.

Of course we will followup all of this up with our wildly crowd-pleasing roundtable of JavaScript-related questions. This is an open forum to present topics of discussion in a rapid-fire manner.

Joe and Alex will be both be attending Funconf so local Git, Python and JavaScript master, Travis Swicegood will be guest hosting the meetup.

Build Native Mobile Apps with Sencha Touch and Phonegap

2011-11-15T00:00:00Z

After an off month in October, we are back this month with another local giving a great talk on how to use web technologies to build native mobile applications with libraries such as Sencha Touch and Phonegap.

Lyle will be discussing the creation of native mobile apps using web technologies. He'll cover items from development to debugging and distribution of the app. To help demonstrate these concepts, he'll be demoing a recent app that he created called Dateventure.

Joe is yet again still out of town so Alex will be guest hosting the meetup.

Node.js. What Is It? How Does It Work?

2012-01-17T00:00:00Z

Happy New Year! Now that most of us are back to work after a hopefully relaxing holiday, we are ready to kick off yet another year of solid JavaScript meetups for the Austin area.

This month we have a special guest flying in from New York City — the CTO and co-founder of Nodejitsu, Paolo Fragemeni. Paolo, a solid computer programmer and veteran hacker has written loads of node.js code including the a significant portion dedicated to the node.js framework, Flatiron.

Node.js. What is it?!! How does it work?!! Paolo will be giving an informative talk on just that — the anatomy of node.js. So whether you are are node.js newbie or a seasoned veteran, this informative talk on node will benefit you.

Also, we will be throwing the 3rd Annual Austin JS SXSW Party in March so if you and/or your employer/company would like to sponsor the event (or be a part of it), please reach out to @joemccann to find out more details.

Toura's Mulberry

2012-02-21T00:00:00Z

Following up on last month's stellar presentation by Nodejitsu's, co-founder and CTO, Paolo Fragemeni, Austin JavaScript is back in February with another mover and shaker in the JavaScript and Mobile development industry, Rebecca Murphey.

Rebecca will be introducing us to Toura's Mulberry, which is an open-source, cross-platform mobile application development framework built on top of PhoneGap that lets you use web technologies to produce engaging, content-rich applications. In this talk, Rebecca will give a quick demo of Mulberry basics, then dive in to how they architected the JavaScript, templates, CSS, and tests to create a flexible, pluggable, 100% client-side content publishing system. DON'T SLEEP ON THIS!

Finally, we will be throwing the 3rd Annual Austin JS SXSW Party in March so if you and/or your employer/company would like to sponsor the event (or be a part of it), please reach out to @joemccann to find out more details.

Build Web Apps with Enyo and Onyx

2012-04-17T00:00:00Z

After another stellar SXSW event, Austin JS is back with another guest speaker, this time with Ben Combee of WebOS fame.

Straightforward and to the point, Ben will be chatting with us on how to build web apps with Enyo and Onyx.

TreeHouse: Using Web Workers to Sandbox JS

2012-05-15T00:00:00Z

This month's Austin JS meetup not only taps into our extensive local talent base, but brings in the academic side of JavaScript as well. Local JavaScript aficionado, Lon Ingram, will be discussing his University of Texas Honors Thesis, Treehouse. This is an event not to be missed!

Lon will be presenting TreeHouse, the subject of his honors thesis, which he completed under the supervision of Dr. Michael Walfish. TreeHouse is a system that uses Web Workers to sandbox (mostly) unmodified JavaScript. TreeHouse gives application authors fine-grained control over untrusted code in their application. Authors can control what parts of the DOM untrusted code can see and modify, as well as the API calls it can make. Is your mind blown yet?

Mikeal Rogers on Node

2012-06-19T00:00:00Z

Coming in just on the heels of what is to be the JavaScript conference of the South, TXJS, Austin JavaScript has brought another out-of-town guest speaker to the June 2012 meetup.

Mikeal will be talking about node. That's all he told me. I foresee a rather bizarre presentation nonetheless. Word is it may involve Japanese cuisine.

StatsD at Etsy

2012-07-17T00:00:00Z

It's hot. We know. Why not come down to this month's meetup and learn some cool things from local front-end expert and O'Reilly published author, Garann Means!

If you know much about the engineering side of Etsy, you're probably aware that they love their devtools there. StatsD is one of their better-known tools. It's an open source Node service that they use to collect statistics about how the site is working and being used. Garann will talk about the tool itself and about how it fits into Etsy's larger process.

Components of the Google Closure Tools

2012-08-21T00:00:00Z

After last month's huge turnout for the meetup we are expecting yet another large turnout for local software developer and JavaScript aficionado, David Tulig.

David's talk will start by going over the components of the Google Closure Tools. This will cover the templates, which are usable on both the client and server, the library, which comes with a dependency management system and a large set of utilities, and the compiler, which performs advanced optimizations to speed up your JavaScript and reduce the size of the final application. He'll then go into detail on how Indeed has leveraged those tools to build resume instant search, covering using the closure tools in development, discussing the architecture that drives the product, and the advantages gained by using the closure tools.

Appcelerator's Titanium

2012-09-18T00:00:00Z

Appcelerator, the company behind the awesome mobile app development framework Titanium, has been a long time supporter of Austin JS going back many years. This month, we are treated to a special presentation (no, NOT a product pitch) by one of their key (and local!) developers, Bert Granges, to talk about and show off the latest and greatest that Titanium has to offer.

Ever wonder what it would be like to use JavaScript to build native applications for iOS and Android? Wouldn't it be nice if you could use one codebase for both platforms? Using JavaScript, Appcelerator Titanium platform and Cloud Services, you'll walk through what it takes to build out a fully functional mobile application supported by backend services. Along the way you will learn how Appcelerator Titanium works and hopefully learn a bit about JavaScript along the way.

Writing Windows Store Apps with JavaScript

2012-10-16T00:00:00Z

Post ACL weekend here in Austin, we will be having the last installment of Austin JS for 2012. Sad Panda, indeed. This month, we have another local JavaScript expert chatting up Windows 8!

Jonathan Hebert's talk will be about writing Windows Store Apps with JavaScript, including:

How to use the Windows Runtime from JavaScript
The WinJS libraries
Async programming with promises
Re-using your Windows Store App code in a browser
Avoiding gotchas in the Windows Store App process

Of course we will followup all of this up with our wildly crowd-pleasing roundtable of JavaScript-related questions. This is an open forum to present topics of discussion in a rapid-fire manner or simply heckle @joemccann. Oh wait! He Hebert's not gonna be there. Guess you Hebert'll have to heckle guest host, @slexaxton!

Austin JavaScript Thanksgiving.js 2012

2012-11-19T00:00:00Z

Since the timing of the Thanksgiving holidays sadly interrupts Austin JavaScript's monthly meetup schedule, we decided to still get together instead of canceling the meetup entirely.

So come and join us for free beer, free food and an all around good time at our staple pub, The Ginger Man. This is purely a social event, but your JS skills may be tested so come prepared!

Mozilla: Cool New Browser Features

2013-01-15T00:00:00Z

Let's ring in the new year with some new JavaScript Hotness. We've got two JavaScript pros flying in from Mozilla to go over some cool new browser features!

Their talk will be about all the brand new stuff in the browser world. They describe it:

It is no secret that Mozilla has been pushing the boundaries of what the internet is capable of, and has been a fundamental force in evolving the web. This will be a whirlwind tour of exciting JavaScript API's that Mozilla is leading.

They are going to cover a variety of things; Web SMS, Web Telephony, Battery API, Web Vibrator, Touch, Camera, The future of gaming, Mouse Lock, Gamepad API, Gladius.js, Mozilla Open Web apps and Identity/Browser Id. Afterwards there will be a Q & A session covering these topics.

Reanimator: Capturing and Replaying JavaScript Applications

2013-02-19T00:00:00Z

February has enough days dedicated to love and romance, so we're dedicating our meetup to bugs. We've got local JavaScript free-thinker and theorist Lon Ingram joining us for a talk about bugs and bug reproduction (ewww gross).

Lon will discuss the problem of reproducing and diagnosing bugs reported from the wild, and then present Reanimator, an experimental system for capturing and replaying JavaScript applications. Reanimator captures non-deterministic input to a JavaScript application in a log that can replayed at a later date. It was originally designed for recording web application crashes for later debugging, but Lon will also cover other uses, such as usability testing and tutorials.

Any questions or suggestions, please feel free to contact Alex ([@SlexAxton][5]). Also, be sure to follow us on Twitter: [@AustinJS][6].

D3 and Data Visualizations

2013-05-21T00:00:00Z

We're back from SXSW and TXJS and ready to get back into action! This month we'll have local JavaScripter, Mark DiMarco talk about D3.js and Data Visualizations.

Mark will give an intro to D3.js and data visualizations as well as some real world use cases for using these tools. Using an interactive programming style, he will navigate the ins and outs of simplifying data, manipulating it, and displaying it in a way that the end user can understand. He'll compare D3 to some other popular charting libraries and note the reasons when you'd pick one style of data visualizations over another.

Of course we will followup all of this up with our wildly crowd-pleasing roundtable of JavaScript-related questions. This is an open forum to present topics of discussion in a rapid-fire manner or simply heckle [@slexaxton][4] or this months fill-in host [@tswicegood][5]!

Writing Testable Code

2013-06-18T00:00:00Z

It's June. It's getting hot and we all need a little more JavaScript in our lives. Well, enjoy the air conditioned comfort of Austin JS on June 18th with a talk from JavaScript SuperStar Rebecca Murphey.

It's one thing to write the code you need to write to get something working; it's another thing to write the code you need to write if you want to be able to prove that it works — and that it keeps working as you refactor and add new features. In this talk, we'll look at what it means to write testable JavaScript code.

Lightning Talks

2013-07-16T00:00:00Z

It's finally over 100 degrees with some consistency. It feels like home again. It must be July. Come celebrate our freedom at Austin JavaScript's first lightning talk meeting.

Instead of having a traditional speaker, we're going to try a lightning talks meeting. We've discussed it with the a few of you and are excited to here everything you guys have to say. If it goes well, we'd like to have these 1 or 2 times a year, so please give feedback!

How it will work

Show up to the meeting with a 5 minute (or so) demo of something that's useful to you in your work as a front-end engineer. This can be software, or patterns, or tools, or frameworks. In the past, just pulling up the website for a tool has been a totally easy way to have something to show without any slides to prep! (We encourage you to think about what you'll say though).
Get up at some point during the meeting and plugin your laptop (we should have a default laptop if you don't need/have one) and give this (very informal) presentation.
Watch everyone else share their best tips and tricks and tools!

We anticipate everyone coming with something that they'd like to share, but if there is a lack of people who are volunteering, then multiple non-contiguous talks by the same person will be allowed. Hopefully we have too many for that to happen, though!

Tom Dale on Ember.js

2013-10-15T00:00:00Z

We hope your summers were eventful and full of fun, but it's time to get back into the groove. We're happy to partner up with the EmberATX meetup for a meetup of the centuries. Tom Dale, co-creator of Ember.js will be visiting Austin to give a talk about Ember.js, the state of Ember 1.0, and the future of the framework.

We're expecting a pretty full-house and only have limited space, so we ask that you RSVP here: Meetup.com EmberATX/AustinJS RSVP (slackers note: it should be open up 'til the moment the meetup starts, unless it fills up).

AustinJS would like to thank the @EmberATX community for setting this up. We're happy to share our space with other awesome JavaScript communities in town!

Kassandra Perch on Flight

2013-11-19T00:00:00Z

Glad tidings, Austin JavaScripters, we bring you good news of our meetup this month! We're happy to welcome Kassandra Perch to throw down some knowledge on Twitter's framework, Flight.

Her talk is titled "Flight: a Framework done right,” and we'll talk about how the framework is event-driven, component-based, and leverages the DOM to form a cohesive code structure. The concept of functional mixins will also be introduced, and how it is unique from other forms of class composition. Finally, we'll cover how all of these create a testable, scalable, friendly front-end code base.

Release the Kraken: A Story of Node.js in the Enterprise

2014-01-21T00:00:00Z

Happy New Year, Austin JavaScriptorians! Hopefully you're enjoying your 2014 SO MUCH you've already broken those pesky resolutions you made a couple of weeks ago.

We're kicking the new year off with an exciting talk from our friends at PayPal called "Release the Kraken: A Story of Node.js in the Enterprise." Jeff Harrell and Erik Toth will tell us how PayPal revitalized its tech stack by moving from Java, JSP, and proprietary solutions to a Node.js web application stack with dust.js templating. Developer agility was the primary motivation, but along the way they had to take on enterprise culture and teach people that JavaScript is no longer a "toy," but a powerful tool to wield. We'll also take a look at PayPal's web app framework, Kraken.

Refactoring Big Apps

2014-02-18T00:00:00Z

This month we'll be hearing from Garann Means about refactoring big apps!

It would be nice if developers could download a JavaScript framework, plug in the custom logic required for their particular problem, and have a functional, scalable, and reliable application. As any who's tried can probably tell you, however, it doesn't work like that. It doesn't matter if your application has 5000 "pages" or less than 50 — it will eventually become a large application in terms of code, because size of code is not just a measure of the complexity of the app itself, but of its maturity. If you've tried taking an app from a minimal set of functionality to something complex enough to cover all the edge cases, you've probably done some rewriting.

If you haven't, it's your lucky day! We'll talk about several of the ways you can almost guarantee a rewrite in your app's future. If, on the other hand, rewrites don't sound like that much fun to you, we'll also talk about how to avoid them or at least minimise the risk they present

IMPORTANT: Location changed to Mass Relevance at 8th and Brazos, just up the street.

The Power of M + Web Components

2014-04-15T00:00:00Z

Hold on to your butts, it's AustinJS time. Not only will we hear from local hero Charles Lowell (@cowboyd) about "The Power of M," but we're also hosting a special guest from Google that will tell us about the future of the web platform, web components!

Whether you're using a full fledged MVC framework. or just spicing up your UX with a single special interaction, it's the "M" and only the "M" that is the key creating powerful user experiences. To demonstrate this principle in action, we'll first create an in-memory model of what a color is, and then use it to build an interactive 3D color chooser. Sound hard? Not when we harness the Power of M. In this talk, we'll track the building of an interactive, 3D color chooser that contains interactive visualizations of both the RGB Space (a cube), and the HSL Space (a cylinder).

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE! Web components are an important part of the future of the web, so when we heard that Rob Dodson (@rob_dodson) was going to be in town, we invited him to come tell us more about them. Rob is a Google developer advocate that specializes in this area, so we're looking forward to learning from him about web components and Google's polyfill/framework Polymer.

LESS + X11 Colors

2014-05-20T00:00:00Z

We're back with another AustinJS! We'll be hearing a couple of talks again this month. First up, Steve Stedman (@stedman) will be doling out some knowledge on LESS, a popular CSS preprocessor implemented in Javascript. Next Alex Sexton (@SlexAxton) will teach us about X11 colors (wha?!!??) and how they've impacted the web.

Complexity Metrics and You

2014-06-17T00:00:00Z

What up Austonians, it's Austin JS time again! Come join us at Spredfast (formerly Mass Relevance, note the location change) for another meetup. We'll hear from local web builder Jared Stilwell about "Complexity Metrics and You." What are complexity metrics? Great question!

The code works. Your linter and test cases are happy. But, you feel the code could be cleaner. Where do you start? Complexity metrics can lead the way. Using a combination of measurement techniques, the process of finding rough edges in your codebase and tracking improvements becomes much easier. We'll cover several common metrics, the landscape of existing tools for JavaScript, and how they can be used to guide refactoring.

Lightning Talks

2014-07-15T00:00:00Z

Hey Austin Javascripters, this month's meetup is gonna bring that ~*~* variety *~*~. Here are a few talks that we've got lined up already:

@lawnsea: TCP Trix
@kassandra_perch: NodeBots
@elbenshira: ClojureScript and Om
@WebDesserts: chroma.js and color manipulation
@ClassicallyGeek and @pncifra: Google Polymer and Web Components
maybe @aaronj1335 if there's time: If Underscore Was Written in ES6

We've still got some time though, so feel free to come with an idea, and we'll work everyone in!

Yield! How ES6 Generators and Monocle-js Can Bring Async Into Line, Literally

2014-08-26T00:00:00Z

Whatup jorbascrupmers. As promised we're going to be hearing about a shiny new feature coming in the next version of JavaScript — generators.

Jonathan Lipps will give a talk titled Yield! How ES6 Generators and Monocle-js Can Bring Async Into Line, Literally, and will teach us how generators can save our souls from callback hell.

Testing JavaScript

2014-09-16T00:00:00Z

Get ready for a blowout Austin JavaScripters, cause this month's meetup is going to be a choreography-fueled rager:

This month's speaker is Dan "Jazz HandsJazzHands" Heberden:

Dan's going to take you to school on testing Javascript. Get ready to be SHOCKED AND AWED.

Building Mobile Apps with Cordova

2014-10-21T00:00:00Z

We've got another ~*super rad*~ meetup next Tuesday, October 21st. Local favorite Dan DeFelippi (@expertdan) is going to educate us on building mobile apps with Cordova (the open-source engine behind PhoneGap). Aside from being a proper geek and hacker, Dan is a co-founder of local bike rental and bike share app Spokefly.

Harrowing tales of running code on other people's sites

2015-01-20T00:00:00Z

Hey happy New Year Austin! Let's celebrate by getting together and talking about 3rd party JavaScript.

So who's gonna emcee this rager? None other than the venerable Rebecca Murphey (@rmurphey). Get ready to hear some harrowing-ass tales of running code on other people's sites, from one of the largest 3rd party JavaScript deployments out there.

JavaScript Crypto

2015-04-21T00:00:00Z

Are you finally recovered from SXSW and ready. for. some. JavaScript?! Well, you're in luck: this Tuesday, Austin local Tara Vancil is giving us a clinic on JavaScript crypto. Please don't tell the NSA.

The web hosts a large portion of the world's new cryptographic tools, and the debate about whether JavaScript is up to the challenge carries on. Tara will discuss how JavaScript plays an important role in developing some of the best crypto tools out there, explain some situations in which it just doesn't cut it, and show some examples of both.

on('input'): Dealing With Data From Your User In Real-time

2015-05-19T00:00:00Z

As the saying goes, "April showers bring May showers." They also bring you another JavaScript meetup! Local markup slinger Charles Lowell will be giving a talk titled "on('input'): dealing with data from your user in real-time… as in like forms, actually."

Dealing with forms in a stateful UI can be a nightmare. While most of the major frameworks focus on their hot new rendering hotness, they uniformly pass the buck when it comes to handling user input. More often than not, you’re on your own, armed with nothing but callbacks when it comes to the complexities of wrangling networks of textfields, checkboxes and other custom components into robust, valid data structures that the rest of your app can use. In this talk, we’ll explore how to bring just a little more sanity to our forms by looking for help in an unlikely place: those same advances in rendering that have pushed the state of the art so far forward these past few years.

Wrangling Transpilations

2015-06-16T00:00:00Z

Howdy, Texas. We're looking forward to seeing all of you fine vaqueras and vaqueros this Tuesday June 17, 2015 as Kyle Simpson (@getify) rustles up some knowledge on transpiling JavaScript.

The new reality of JavaScript is that the features will evolve even quicker than the specification, and much quicker than your "supported" browsers. So we're going to have to come to grips with transpilers being a standard part of our build processes. But what can we do to wrangle at least two versions of every file? What does that mean for server-side coding (node/iojs) and what does it mean for browser-delivered files? Should we use the transpiled code everywhere, or should we have split delivery?

JerseyScript.tx

2015-07-21T00:00:00Z

Sup, y'all. We've got something special planned for our July meetup and we are shore you're gonna think it's fresh to death.

Here's the Situation: AustinJS is going down the Shore! Jenn Schiffer is staging a blowout JerseyScript bo-coup on July 22, 2015. Jenn has convinced New York's own Adam J. Sontag to come rap with us about a speech recognition game he is working on.

Ember.js and Ember-CLI

2015-08-18T00:00:00Z

We're not in our usual location! We'll be meeting at Spredfast this month in the Silicon Labs building, so please plan accordingly.

Hey Austin JavaScripters, summer is in full swing and {{ joke_about_how_ember_is_hot }}. We're excited to hear from Iheanyi Ekechukwu as he tells us about "Ember.js, Ember-CLI, and how it all relates to that 'shut up and dance with me' song," (which we were actually hoping to hear about last month). Hope to see you there this Tuesday, August 19, 2015.

All-React Extravaganza

2015-09-15T00:00:00Z

Webster's Dictionary defines "extravaganza" as:

a very large and exciting show or event

And nothing says exciting like JavaScript frameworksssssss!

Ok, calm down for a second so I can tell you what's going on here. Tim Tyrrell and Travis Swicegood are going to tell us about ReactJS, Flux, and that sort of stuff. Tim will kick it off live-coding with React, and then Travis will give a whirlwind tour of Flux and how it fits into the ecosystem we all love.

We won't dive too deep since we haven't covered React at AustinJS yet, but stay tuned for news about a new meetup you might be into!

Node 4, huh yeah, what is it good for?

2015-10-20T00:00:00Z

For our final meetup of 2k15 we have a very special guest: Joe McCann, founder of AustinJS and NodeSource, is going to talk about this Node.js thing we've heard so much about. Node recently went straight from 0.12 to 4.0, meaning it is 33.3X more Enterprise Ready™®©℠ than competing platforms. Joe will tell us everything we need to know to scale Node out the front door and into the cloud.

Alex Sexton talks about client-side "security"

2016-01-19T00:00:00Z

🎉🎆 Happy New Year 🎆🎉 Hopefully 2016 finds all of you well, and hopefully you'll RESOLLLLVVVVE to make it out to AustinJS next week to hear Alex Sexton talk about "almost definitely client side security." We're pretty certain that means his three-hour deep dive on whether Rey is a Kenobi (hey as long as it's not politics, religion, or sex right).

Bringing Open-Source Practices to Your Day Job

2016-02-16T00:00:00Z

We're not in our usual location!: We'll be meeting at Spredfast this month in the Silicon Labs Building on Colorado/Cesar Chavez (map).

Hey everyone, we're excited about February 17, 2016 because Benjamin Coe is going to come talk about Bringing Open-Source Practices to Your Day Job.

We've got food and beverages this month thanks to Front End Development at IBM. If you'd like to hear more about what they're working on, feel free to reach out to [email protected] or check out the Feducation event they're doing with General Assembly.

Anton Astashov and Elm

2016-04-19T00:00:00Z

It's April, so let's shake off our collective SXSW hangovers 🍻 (or maybe emerge from our SXSW bunkers ☢️) and get together on April 20, 2016 for another great AustinJS!

We'll be hearing from Anton Astashov about Elm, a transpiled-to-JavaScript language which makes sure you’ll never have a runtime error in your app. Almost. He'll cover why it’s cool, what it looks like, it’s pros and (most importantly) cons!

Making Browsers Compatible with Web JavaScript

2016-05-17T00:00:00Z

This month we've got dark web expert and Gotye fan ~~Miike~~ Mike ~~Snow~~ Taylor in to discuss the nuances of writing JavaScript that actually works in world-wide web browsing machines. Come out and join us next Tuesday May 18, 2016!

Making It Better Without Making It Over

2016-06-21T00:00:00Z

This month we've got veteran frontend engineer Rebecca Murphey, who will share the story of how she started a new job this year by paying a visit to JavaScript circa 2009, back when Ryan Dahl was getting ready to announce Node and Facebook was still four years away from being mocked for the apparent heresy of JSX. She'll explain how she modernized and best-practice-ified a project that didn't even have a package.json, smoothing the development process, eliminating common sources of bugs, paving the way for bigger improvements, and never once uttering the words "we oughta just start from scratch." Come out and join us next Tuesday June 22, 2016!

Browser vendors hate him!

2016-07-19T00:00:00Z

This Tuesday, July 20, 2016, discover how this one weird extension changed the web forever. Andrew Dupont will give us a 12 year perspective (most of a century in internet years) on the ways GreaseMonkey shaped today's browsers and how user scripts give us the opportunity of a better web.

PWA's and TLA's, but definitely not SPA's

2016-08-16T00:00:00Z

Come out next Tuesday, August 17, 2016, as Dave Rupert tells us how to ~~make the mobile web great again~~ make Progressive Web Apps!

JavaScript in the Ivory Tower

2016-09-20T00:00:00Z

It may still be hot in ATX, but summer is over, so our very own Lon Ingram is gonna take us back to school and tell us about JavaScript in the Ivory Tower. We'll cover some great papers about JavaScript, and go beyond that to discuss how to find good research and read those super long intimidating papers.

Austin on AustinATX

2016-10-18T00:00:00Z

We're not in our usual location!: We'll be meeting at TechSpace Austin this month (map).

We've got a special meetup tonight! Austin on Rails, AustinJS, and EmberATX are teaming up to bring Yehuda Katz to town. Yehuda will tell us about "Ember, Now and Next," and then we'll have a Fireside Chat. Register and find out more on the event page:

Go to the Event Page →

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Data-driven Front-end Development

2016-11-15T00:00:00Z

Hey happy Veteran's Day and Marine Corps Birthday! AustinJS is going to get together Tuesday November 16, 2016 to hear from Jon Loyens about data-driven front end development ~⭐️for the troops⭐️~

In his own words:

Much has been made of Lean Startups, A/B testing and building data driven cultures. In order to be data-driven you need to have a culture of instrumentation and measurement, but building out the pipelines, client side instrumentation and an analytics warehouse from the ground up can be tedious, hard and time-consuming.

To address this problem, I’ll share a roadmap to successfully evolving a web analytics pipeline that starts by leveraging third party and open source tools for speed and time to market, but is still robust enough to evolve to owning your own warehouse. For context, I’ll walk through my experiences of introducing A/B testing and building out web analytics integrations at Bazaarvoice, expanding HomeAway’s A/B testing program to nearly 1000 tests a year, and now helping to architect data.world’s analytics pipeline.

Do’s and Don’ts for front-end instrumentation:
- Do use exception track (Sentry) as well as event tracking
- Don’t use a general purpose tag manager
- Do leverage third party tools along the way
- Do plan to own your analytics stack eventually
- Don’t give away all your data
- Don’t believe the ‘one line of JS’ hype/No silver bullet
- Do provide a way for your business team to experiment with tooling
- Do be explicit
- Do keep allocation and bucketing in mind
Tracking all the things vs. tracking the important things
How our front end tech stack enables all this

Making old electronics new again ...with JavaScript!

2017-01-17T00:00:00Z

Happy New Year everyone! Here's to fresh start. We're kicking the year off in style with a great talk from Rachel Weil!

Rachel will share a selection of personal projects that bring vintage electronics into the 21st century with Node.js and hobbyist microcontrollers. She’ll also cover some of the basic tools and approaches to getting started with refurbishing, refitting, and reworking old game consoles, computers, and digital toys.

In other big news, Spredfast is now the official location for AustinJS! The Spredfast team has always been kind to share their ~*luxurious*~ downtown space with us, so we look forward to making more memories going forward. Thanks Spredfast!

Anton Astashov on immutability

2017-02-21T00:00:00Z

What are immutable data structures? Why would you want to prevent objects from changing? Why not just Object.freeze()?

These are great questions for smart people, so you should come listen to Anton talk about what he'd like to see change in the world of immutable JavaScript (you… you see what I did there?).

Intro to WebAssembly

2017-03-21T00:00:00Z

WebAssembly is fast. It’s being called “the future of the web”. Its speed and potential have major browser vendors working together to make it a reality. And it’s on its way — the MVP hit multiple browsers in October of last year.

But what makes it fast? Starting from the basics, this talk will walk you through what WebAssembly is, and then why it’s fast.

Get your burning questions ready! We'll have some super special swag for the best questions.

Make sure to do Mozilla a solid and [RSVP at their meetup page](https://www.meetup.com/Mozilla-Developer-Roadshow/events/237760047/)!

Chuck always wins

2017-04-18T00:00:00Z

What up team we got a meetup tonight! Tonight we're going to talk about testing your code. We figured it's been almost 6 years since we last talked about TDD, which means the ecosystem has been through ~11 different testing frameworks, so we might as well get back into the subject since QUALITY IS EVERYONE'S JOB ZERO.

Mark Sims is coming to town to tell us about his experiences with testing and walk us through testing an app called Deathmatch that needs to be sure Chuck always wins.

Meep! AustinJS is BACK! Meep Meep!

2017-06-20T00:00:00Z

Here come dat beaker!

Hey friends! AustinJS is back with an exciting dual talk from Austin's own Tara Vancil and Paul Frazee about their project, [Beaker Browser][beaker], an experimental web browser with builtin hosting and p2p web protocols.

Perfecting Perf

2017-07-18T00:00:00Z

It's too hot for hair out there, so we've asked Lon Ingram to come talk to us about making websites fast as ⚡ (kung fu fighting, etc). Join us Tuesday July 19, 2017 and learn what it takes to appease our search engine overlords!

Talk summary

With the rise of the mobile web, speed has become crucial to success. Users won't wait around for slow-loading pages and search engines are now punishing sluggish sites. There's a wealth of ideas out there for cranking up performance, but how do you know where to start? What if you work for days to ship an optimization that doesn't really pay off? In this talk, you'll learn how to experiment and fail fast. You'll find out how to quickly and rigorously assess your optimization ideas with open source tools, and how to share your results so that others can replicate your findings.

Babble? Baebull?

2017-08-15T00:00:00Z

Ever wonder how to pronounce Babel? Join us Tuesday August 16, 2017 to find out! Austin's own Andrew Levine will teach us how to write Babel plugins.

Talk summary

Andrew is going to give an intro to writing Babel plugins. He'll start with a very high level summary of how Babel works, and then dive into the Plugin APIs and several examples of real world plugins to write.

Not so locally sourced JavaScript

2017-09-19T00:00:00Z

Source maps, huh, yeah. What are they good for? Absolutely... some things.

We have an extra special treat this month thanks to our gracious hosts and good friends at Spredfast: Ben Vinegar is coming all the way from "San Francisco" to tell us everything about how source maps work. Join us Tuesday September 20, 2017 for a special Bae Area AustinJS!

Talk summary

You may already be familiar with source maps. They let you debug your original, unminified, and untranspiled code in the browser. But have you ever wondered how they actually work? Ben will take a deep dive into the source map format to see what’s under the hood, exploring source map generation tools, parsers, and how to manipulate source maps directly for fun and profit.

How to Start a JavaScript Synthpop Band

2017-10-17T00:00:00Z

Synthesizers! JavaScript! Aleatoricism?? Using an actual analog synthesizer as a guide, Kyle will build a feature-for-feature replica in the browser with the Web Audio API and show how to use JavaScript to overcome a lack of musical training. You'll learn the capabilities and limitations of the Web Audio API, and how it can be used for applications like gaming, WebVR, and 80s retro synthwave. With live coding, live synth playing, and a touch of music theory, what could go wrong?

We can't contain our excitement!!!

2017-11-21T00:00:00Z

We've got Mando Escamilla coming this month to deploy some knowledge on us. Here's some relevant prior art:

In his own words…

DOCKER! CONTAINERS! KUBERNETES! GAAAAH

If all that stuff is confusing or intimidating, don’t panic - we’re here to help. We’ll help you develop a mental model of a kubernetes cluster and what it does, then jump into a demo of how you’d build and deploy a simple javascript application inside a kubernetes cluster. Don’t worry - if we were able to figure this out, you can too.

Can we please find some commonjs ground on modules??

2018-01-16T00:00:00Z

The January meetup is cancelled due to expected hazardous weather. See y'all in February!

Let's kick off the new year with Bradley Farias, who will deliver a meditation on the seven stages of ~~grief~~ standards development:

From Language Design to TC39 (The JS Language Standards Group)

This talk is a reflection on a lot of discussions that come up when talking about language design and what it means to design for a future that is always bigger than the past. Topics from the past present and future such as ASI, ESM, decorators, and private fields are things that are important to get right if we are stuck with them forever. We can use discussion examples of each of these topics to get a better understanding of why it is so difficult to make things "just work". I will discuss ongoing themes of discussion within TC39 and efforts that are changing how TC39 is viewed.

CANCELLED! WINTER IS COMING. SEEK SHELTER AND COMFORT.

Can we please find some commonjs ground on modules??

2018-02-20T00:00:00Z

Let's kick off the new year with Bradley Farias, who will deliver a meditation on the seven stages of ~~grief~~ standards development:

From Language Design to TC39 (The JS Language Standards Group)

🥤🍾🍷🍻🍹🍼 bevera.js at Gingerman ☕️🥛🥃🍸🍺🍶

2018-05-15T00:00:00Z

Come out tomorrow May 16, 2018, for some bevera.js at the Gingerman! Topics of discussion may include:

The open web
JorbaScrump
What drink you and or your conversation partner are currently imbibing upon
"Oh hey how have you been?"
Giving Lawn a hard time
Movies watched recently
Funny tweets
Ridiculous things your kid did or said
Ridiculous things your dog did or said
Dank memes
And many more!

Topics of discussion will of course not include violations of our code of conduct. If you see anyone fall short of being excellent to one another, please let them or an organizer know!

Lessons learned optimizing performance on Mixbook.com

2018-06-19T00:00:00Z

Who is ready to optimize your user's spa experience? Anton is going to tell us the secrets to making your visitors feel pampered in no time flat! Anton will share all the tricks of the trade, from how to improve time to first relaxation to HTTP/2 aromatherapy tips.

Anton has recently been working on optimizing performance for mixbook.com, and he’d like to tell y'all about their experience: what worked and what didn't.

Topics include,

how they got rid of all external CSS to avoid blocking network calls
how they started inlining some server-side data right into JS bundles and rebuilt/redeployed the app automatically when that data changes
how we used webpack with custom loaders to automate all that stuff
and more and more :)

Zelda + a11y?

2018-07-17T00:00:00Z

Accessibility is hard. Oftentimes, it’s difficult to understand what users and assistive technology expect from your markup and designs. Can accessibility be easier to learn? Can it be…fun? In this talk, Dave will approach accessibility the way we might tackle a video game—looking at a handful of common UI patterns like popup, tabs, accordions, and modals; how to test them; and how to defeat them while leveling up your skillset along the way.

What if the simulation is powered by JavaScript? This explains a lot.

2018-08-21T00:00:00Z

Simon has been building browser based simulations such as coldwar.io and ratsofthemaze.com over the past few years, showcasing them at numerous JS Confs and our own TXJS. Since he's in town this week, he's going to give us a casual retrospective on this work and a dive into some of the code.

Special Guest Host

Lon and Andrew are off to JSConf US and Aaron is taking a sabbatical to finish his upcoming definitive book on ConcreteAbstractFactoryAdapterImplementations, so Rebecca Murphey has graciously offered to come out of retirement and host this month's event.

Bring me a higher function, whoa-oh

2018-09-18T00:00:00Z

List manipulation is a foundation of programming, and filtering is one of the pillars. Use cases are widespread, from removing outliers from a dataset to applying filters from user interactions. When a list of criteria gets large, however, the code used for these filters can get unruly.

By using and writing higher-order functions, you can write, combine, and manipulate criteria while keeping your JavaScript readable, maintainable, and DRY.

An Event-ful Evening with JavaScript

2018-10-16T00:00:00Z

Handling events like clicks and keypresses as users interact with your content is essential for any web app. Learn the fundamentals of how events work in JavaScript, including:

an introduction to the DOM Event specification
how to attach event listeners (there's so many ways!)
how event propagation works, what "bubbling" and "capturing" mean, and why you should care
the differences between preventDefault, stopPropagation, and return false (and when you should use each one!)

Whether you're just learning JavaScript or are an experienced front-end developer, you'll walk away with a deeper familiarity with events. You'll be able to implement event listeners with confidence and debug with clarity!

This talk is adapted from an Ember.js-specific talk, Deep Dive on Ember Events.

Saving CSS Grid Headaches with JavaScript

2019-01-15T00:00:00Z

Grid frameworks in CSS help keep a product, department, or even a whole company visually aligned. However, they can be a struggle to maintain while satisfying different experiences’ needs. Thankfully, scripting languages have a knack for keeping everything sane. By creating a new open-source package that generates grid frameworks, we will cover:

Abstracting design specs for reusable code
Performance vs CSS browser support
The flexibility of isomorphic JavaScript packages

Why people hate Javascript

2019-02-19T00:00:00Z

Why do some people hate JavaScript while others bask in its glory? In Stack Overflow's 2018 Survey of over 100,000 developers; JavaScript, HTML, and CSS rank as the top three most used technologies, with 70% of developers stating that they use JavaScript. Next in the list is SQL with 57%.

Not everyone is an expert front-end developer, but it seems that most people at least have to dip their toes.

If you hate JavaScript, I'm going to finally articulate why you know in your heart that this is such a terrible language. For you JavaScript lovers out there, hopefully this sheds some light on why your language of choice is such a steaming pile of 💩.

Let's talk about what we can do about it.

JavaScript on Microcontrollers

2019-04-16T00:00:00Z

Sometimes it's the little things that count - in 2s complement. Come hear about how to program the ESP8266 microcontroller using Espruino and see some fancy rainbow animations on strips of NeoPixels.

Taking the non- out of non-standard.

2019-05-21T00:00:00Z

Come learn about the weird history of the IE event model, what it took to ship window.event (and associated garbage) in Firefox 66, and why we're still talking about this in 2019.

Web Assembly: What it Is, Why you should care, and what it means for JS

2019-07-16T00:00:00Z

Let's talk about a five-year-old tech like it's brand new; which is really what WebAssembly is; it's been around for years but we're only just starting to discover what it can do and how to use it. Kas can say with no hyperbole that this is the next Ajax in terms of importance to browser applications, and in this talk they'll explain why a multi-language web doesn't spell the end of JavaScript but rather a Renaissance for the web.

Let's Go on a console.log() Safari 🦏

2019-08-20T00:00:00Z

One of the first things we learn in JavaScript is console.log(). Yet this belies the true complexity of its behavior. What exactly does console.log() do, anyways? (The short answer: it depends!) Adorn your pith and get in the jeep because we're about to explore console.log() and maybe learn a few things about streams, browsers and JavaScript engines along the way!

Mosaic: a Platform for Micro-Frontends at Indeed

2019-10-15T00:00:00Z

Indeed is one of the largest Job Search websites in the world. In order to maintain developer velocity and quality, we’re in the process of dramatically shifting how we build web applications. Historically, we’ve built large monolith applications that have upwards of a hundred contributors, but we’ve found that this approach has limited our ability to iterate, and innovate as quickly as we’d like.

Today, we’re focusing on splitting our monolith applications into smaller, more manageable components. In this talk, I’ll cover in detail how we developed a platform that enables building decoupled, distributed systems that perform and feel like a single application.

We’ve developed a platform that enables the independent deployability of units of user interface units across products and pages. In this talk I’ll describe:

The types of problems a decoupled, and distributed frontend solve
The individual subsystems of the platform and how those systems fit together
How we built, and monitor the system, especially as it grows
The tradeoffs, and problems we’ve run into, and how we’ve solved them thus far
How to practically, and incrementally adopt this kind of system in your ecosystem

DevLaunchers - world's most FUN experiment to help teenagers learn game development!

2019-11-19T00:00:00Z

Join us for an introduction to DevLaunchers, an initiative to teach high school students in under-served communities about game development. We'll dive into how we build the website, activities, internal tools and slack event handlers on Cloudflare Workers, CodeSandbox, GitHub Pages and Travis CI.

Absolute Unit Tests with Jest and Enzyme

2020-02-18T00:00:00Z

Everything you wanted to know about testing React components with Jest and Enzyme Learn what a unit test is, why its useful, and how to test things like: existence of react components, simulated clicks and other events, mocking data, snapshots and more!

Building Semi-hosted SaaS

2023-06-20T00:00:00Z

Hosted software as a service is great, but can give the provider too much leverage over your data and the software itself. Meanwhile, self-hosted software, like many open source solutions, takes away the key value proposition of SaaS. Luckily, "semi-hosted" is a model that provides the best of both worlds and enables customization and extensibility not usually possible. I want to talk about this pattern and show what you can do with it by demonstrating a semi-hosted personal organizer I've been building with Deno and Mithril.js called Treestar.

HTML with Superpowers: An introduction to Web Components

2023-07-18T00:00:00Z

A short dive into web components taking a look at what they are, how they work, what problems they solve, what problems they have, and why you may want to use them on your next project.

Dave Rupert is co-founder of Luro, a tool for tracking component usage and insights. He also co-hosts Shoptalk, a web design and development podcast with Chris Coyier from CSS-Tricks.

4 or more package managers, what's the worst that could happen?

2023-08-15T00:00:00Z

JavaScript has a horribly rich history of writing package managers with none fully reigning as the final winner in a perpetual war for popularity and utility. Let's cover some of their differences, that actually end up with some fun surprises about nuances in how they work along the way!

The Rise of Structured Concurrency

2023-09-19T00:00:00Z

Rule 1. Highly concurrent programs are hard.

Rule 2. Every non-trivial program is highly concurrent.

JavaScript gives us some primitives to express asynchrony like promises, and async functions, but unfortunately they do not guarantee correctness. In fact far from it. Most async code is full of edge-cases and foot guns that never reveal themselves until you’re at scale. In this talk, we’ll put names to all these edge-cases and footguns so that you can recognize them instantly when they happen to you. After showing the ills, we’ll talk about the the cure: an exciting new way of thinking about our programs called Structured Concurrency. Language communities from Go, and Rust to Swift and Java, are all ablaze with talk of it, so whether you’ve explored this topic before or this is the first you’ve heard of it, you won’t want to miss this talk, because in ten years time, it will be the norm and we’ll all wonder how we ever did without it.

Native Mobile Apps with Vanilla JavaScript

2023-10-17T00:00:00Z

Build native mobile apps in JavaScript! Just regular JavaScript without any mobile frameworks.

This can be a great solution if you’re a web developer and JavaScript is your bread and butter. Apps built this way work fast, are quick to deploy, and don’t have to pass App Store reviews every time! So come and learn about the pros and cons of this approach, and what it takes to build a JS native mobile app.

Remix: Teaching Young Dogs new Tricks

2024-01-16T00:00:00Z

Remix is a full stack web framework that lets you focus on the user interface and work back through web standards to deliver a fast, slick, and resilient user experience. In this talk Brooks will show you how Remix makes it easy to iteratively build solid, engaging, and user-centric experiences using the basic building blocks of the web.

Programmable OS Command Palettes

2024-02-20T00:00:00Z

Command palettes in applications are great — they spare us from reaching for the mouse to go spelunking through menus. Raycast and Script Kit are two delightful tools that are akin to command palettes, accessible from within any application, and programmable with JavaScript! Come, see what's possible, and feel empowered to start building out your own OS command palette!

Universal React with Expo Router

2024-03-19T00:00:00Z

We’ve all heard of the React motto “write once, run everywhere” but what does this look like in reality? Learn how Expo Router––the universal React framework––is making it possible to reuse complex app development patterns like routing, data fetching, and rendering, across web and native platforms.

I’m the creator of Expo Router, and manage the dev tools/web team at Expo. Bring your most complicated React/React Native questions and I’ll try my best to answer them all.

Lightning Talks

2024-04-16T00:00:00Z

This month, we are opening the podium to the community, inviting all to take the microphone for a few minutes to show off something that you have learned or discovered recently that has made your life as a JS dev easier! All who are brave enough to present will be rewarded with newly minted AustinJS stickers.

Lightning talks:

The Ongoing War Between CJS & ESM: A Presentation on Insecurity & Security by Nathan Bornstein
Kill It with Fire: A Flaky Spec Story, Or "How I fixed 2000 flaky specs and learned how to love the build" by Nicholas Mullen
Docker by Dylan Briar
dynohot by marcel laverdet
Running web apps on native mobile devices with Capacitor by Ryan Hopper-Lowe
Pattern for conditional rendering using component by Arno Saine

Making Mobile And Desktop Apps From Your JS Frontend With Tauri

2024-05-21T00:00:00Z

Tauri is a relatively recent, open-source (FLOSS), framework that lets you re-purpose your JS frontend as both a desktop (Mac/Win/Linux) and mobile (iOS/Android) application. It's easy to use and creates small, highly performant, executables.

JavaScript's Quirks: Understanding the 'Why' Behind the 'What'

2024-06-18T00:00:00Z

JavaScript is a language often mocked for its quirky behaviors, like how 3 + '3' equals '33' or how 0.1 + 0.2 doesn't quite equal 0.3. These peculiarities can be confusing and frustrating, especially for beginners. However, most of these behaviors aren't random or senseless—they stem from historical decisions, compromises, and attempts to handle various use cases. In this talk, we'll explore some of JavaScript's most notorious quirks, exploring their reasoning. We'll cover topics like type coercion, truthy/falsy values, equality comparisons, variable scope and hoisting, the typeof operator, and prototypal inheritance. If you understand the 'why' behind the 'what,' you will be better equipped to write clean, predictable JavaScript code and avoid common pitfalls. Whether you're a JavaScript beginner or an experienced developer, you'll walk away with valuable insights into the language's inner workings.

Getting Started with Passkeys and WebAuthn

2024-07-16T00:00:00Z

Passwords are vulnerable and frustrating for users. Passkeys promise a seamless and secure authentication future. But understanding the concepts and implementing them into your web application can feel daunting.

In this talk, we'll break down the fundamentals of passkeys, including the WebAuthn specification and the benefits they provide. You'll learn how to set up a simple WebAuthn server, handle registration and authentication flows, and navigate the practical aspects of implementing passkeys in your application. We will cover just enough ground for you to get started and lay out a passkey foundation to be built upon.

Contorted Frameworks: Resolving the Tension Between Static and Dynamic UIs

2024-08-20T00:00:00Z

Or: "How a Rails developer read the docs, achieved enlightenment, and learned to love React server components"

An exploration of the pain and oddities of how traditional web frameworks attempt to handle high-interactivity dynamic UIs, and how modern front-end frameworks similarly introduce complexity to support low-interactivity static UIs.

Building Robust Applications with Effect: Mastering Return Types and Monads

2024-09-17T00:00:00Z

Effect is a powerful library that enhances your TypeScript projects by focusing on robust return types, error handling, query retries, interruption management, and observability. With Effect, you can ensure that your functions return consistent and predictable types, making your code more reliable and easier to maintain. It also encourages treating errors as first-class citizens, allowing for graceful error handling and recovery. Additionally, Effect provides mechanisms for retrying queries and managing interruptions, ensuring that your application remains resilient in various scenarios. Finally, its observability features help you monitor and debug your application more effectively. Now, you can take your todo application to the next level and impress everyone with your overengineered masterpiece.

Making real-time easier than ever with Prisma Pulse

2024-10-15T00:00:00Z

When starting on a new web, fullstack project, developers are spoiled for choice from the many frameworks and services to choose from. For real-time or near real-time apps, there's an even more complicated world to navigate. Instead, what if you could use web APIs and simple to integrate services to power any real-time app? Join Jon as he guides you through everything you might need to create a chat room (spoiler: it's less than you might think!)

Holiday Party

2024-12-06T00:00:00Z

The holiday party was a blast! We introduced our new Austin JavaScript shirts for the first time, and gave them to the winning table members of the Web Trivia game we played. Plus, some tried out our new battledecks, where each speaker improvised the topic and content based on what slides popped up on the screen. They all did great, and were awarded a shirt as well.

Cloudflare for Web Dev

2025-01-29T00:00:00Z

Cloudflare offers a cheap and easy suite of tools for developers to build full stack web applications. In this talk, Collier will show how to build and deploy a full stack web app on Cloudflare, covering hosting, storage, databases, background jobs and more.

Simplifying React App Login

2025-02-18T00:00:00Z

We will focus on overcoming challenges in implementing secure and efficient login processes for React applications. The session covers basic login functionalities, integrating with external identity providers (IDPs), and advanced use cases like Single Sign-On (SSO), Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), and social login options. Developers will learn how to streamline user authentication using the Asgardeo React SDK, enabling OpenID Connect (OIDC) compliance, token management, and best security practices.

Effect-TS: Engineering Reliable Open Source Systems

2025-04-15T00:00:00Z

We'll explore the architectural patterns and practices for developing enterprise-ready open-source software using Effect-TS. The session will demonstrate how functional programming principles, through Effect-TS, provide robust solutions for complex enterprise requirements, including error handling, observability, and concurrency management.

Attendees will learn practical techniques for creating specialized effects, designing comprehensive error types, and implementing generation functions that enhance maintainability and scalability. The lecture will showcase these concepts through a HIPAA-compliant medical application lens, illustrating how Effect-TS elegantly addresses the stringent requirements of healthcare software—including audit logging, secure data handling, and regulatory compliance. The session will also cover advanced topics such as building observation services for telemetry and leveraging fiber-based concurrency to create responsive applications that maintain data integrity under load. By examining these enterprise patterns in Effect-TS, developers will gain valuable insights applicable to any industry requiring high reliability, security, and maintainability in their open-source software projects.

Vibe Coding a Tamagotchi in Next.js

2025-05-20T00:00:00Z

Ever wanted to build something just for the vibes? In this talk, I’ll walk through how I prototyped a Tamagotchi-style app using Next.js and TailwindCSS — not for a client, not for a launch, but just to explore joy in coding. We'll cover core frontend logic (state management, time-based updates), CSS animations, and light gamification. The goal isn’t perfection — it's flow, play, and remembering why we started coding in the first place. Expect code demos, a few laughs, and maybe even a virtual pet revival.

Universal Tools For AI

2025-06-17T00:00:00Z

Agents are the coolest trend but what are they made of? Let's take a look at what is going on behind the scenes and explore concepts like Model Context Protocol, Function Calling and APIs