Issue #106 - November 23, 2012 This is the first week a yet-to-be-named co-editor of JavaScript Weekly has helped me out. Assuming all goes well, they'll be your new full-time editor in a few issues' time ;-) Exciting! - Peter C. Featured A Few New Things Coming To JavaScript
Addy Osmani gives an overview of new ECMAScript 6 features and explains how you can try some of them out today. Includes modules, classes, Object.observe, default parameter values, and proxies, amongst others. The State of Backbone.js
Alex Young of DailyJS explains what's been going on since Backbone's last release back in March.
YUIConf 2012 Recap and Keynote Video
From our Sponsor  Rich data for JavaScript Apps is a Breeze
When a desktop application moves to HTML/JavaScript, the need for rich data moves with it. Consider BreezeJS for querying, caching, offline, change tracking, object graph navigation, and bulk saves. Make it part of your JavaScript client app stack.
Reading Go Node Without Code
Brian Rinaldi lists Node.js-powered command line tools – which are cross-platform, written in JavaScript and can be installed via the Node Package Manager npm. How to Create A Private npm Repository
What did Tom Gallacher do when npmjs.org was down one day? Figure out how to create his own replica. He explains how here.
DOM Sprites: A Viable Alternative to Canvas
Canvas is slow or unsupported on many browsers, especially mobile ones. Christer Kaitila presents an alternative to Canvas for HTML5 games that is easy to implement, works everywhere and has fewer performance issues.
Building A Relationship Between CSS and JavaScript
This article by Tim Wright for Smashing Magazine explains how to delegate work from JavaScript to modern CSS, complemented by a JavaScript fallback for older browsers. Harmony with TypeScript
Dmitry Sheiko enumerates language features that TypeScript has added to JavaScript (the former being a superset of the latter). Except for type-related things, most of those features are rough previews of ECMAScript 6. Stream Handbook: How to Write Node.js Programs with Streams
Experiments in Optimization on a New JS Computer Vision Library
SightMachine is porting their SimpleCV computer vision library to JavaScript. In this post, they dig deep into the optimizations they've been making and how well they work.
Fully Loaded Node - A Node.JS Holiday Season, Part 2
Mozilla's Identity team searches for an optimal server application architecture for computation heavy workloads for Mozilla Persona.
Watching Bocoup Screencasts: Bitesize JavaScript Screencasts
The first three screencasts in a new series Bocoup is producing. Covers DRYing out your JavaScript code with functions and objects and reducing the complexity of a function.
Paul Lewis on Generating JS Garbage and Memory Leaks
Googler and JavaScript noodler Paul Lewis shares a 2 minute nugget of wisdom while walking the gnarly London streets. An interesting format. Recorded by Paul Irish.
Code and Libraries Wizardry: An ImageMagick Image Processing Library for Node.js
A task-based library for GraphicsMagick / ImageMagick that focuses on simplicity and getting one thing done right: processing images.
Romulus: A Static Site Generator
Felix Geisendörfer’s Node.js-based tool is similar to Jekyll and Octopress. es6-map-shim: A Polyfill for ECMAScript 6 Maps
Eric Wendelin’s shim implements the evolving ECMAScript 6 Map specification as closely as possible. backbone.layoutmanager: A Layout and Template Manager for Backbone.js Applications
Tim Branyen’s backbone.layoutmanager provides a logical structure for assembling layouts with Backbone Views. Designed to be adaptive and configurable for painless integration. heyoffline.js: Warn Your Users When They Go Offline
A simple library that supports both onOnline and onOffline events as well as throwing up a modal window warning users they're offline.
a: A New Mocking and Test Framework
Has a very succinct BDD-style syntax.
Browser Framework qooxdoo 2.1 Released
A few highlights: full support for IE 10 (and thus Windows 8, Windows RT and Windows Phone 8); mobile apps get more widgets and a view for running unit tests; desktop apps get dynamic theme switching and a virtual tree widget for large hierarchical data sets. FloraJS: JS Framework for Simulating Natural Systems in the Browser
Be sure to check out the official home page for examples and the intriguing concept of 'Braitenberg vehicles' which FloraJS sets out to simulate.
Pickadate.js: Lightweight jQuery Date Picker
Looks nice but under the hood it has a number of issues, as elaborated in this Hacker News discussion. Including for both reasons.
JSFeat: JavaScript Computer Vision Library
This library by Eugene Zatepyakin offers functionality such as image transformations and object detection. Be sure to check out the face detection demos in a browser that supports WebRTC. Cycle2: A Slide Show Plugin for jQuery
Say Cheese! Simple, Event-Based API for Taking Webcam Snapshots from JS
ssh2: SSH2 Client Module Written in Pure JS for Node.js
Pomelo: Fast, Scalable, Distributed Game Server Framework for Node.js
Jobs  Test Driven JavaScript and Ruby Developer [San Francisco and Santa Monica, CA]
Carbon Five builds web and mobile products for startups, institutional companies and non-profit organizations using a finely tuned agile process with cutting edge tools and technology. Join a team of seasoned pros in a highly-collaborative environment and work on a new project every couple of months.
Senior JavaScript Developers/Consultants (SF Bay Area – Telecommuting ok)
Work with the latest technologies! We’re looking for sharp developers to build rich JavaScript applications (also called Single Page Applications (SPA)) for the next generation of web and mobile apps. Web Developer at ribot (Brighton, UK)
ribot are looking for someone special! If you're passionate about creating simple, beautiful interfaces, then we're the folks for you! Check out our Christmas-themed rhyme and associated pretty speakerdeck for more info. Post a job in a future issue of JavaScript Weekly
Last but not least.. Interactive Data Visualization for the Web
A free O’Reilly e-book by Scott Murray in an early state of release. It explains data visualization via the D3.js library. | 
