The Problem with Native JavaScript APIs

by Nicholas C. Zakas

Many features inspired by popular JavaScript libraries are now available as native JavaScript APIs in today's powerful browsers. While that may seem convenient given all of the JavaScript you need to write, relying on these APIs will only make code maintenance more difficult in the long run.

In this report, Nicholas Zakas--consultant and former front-end tech leader at Yahoo!--provides a case study to show how different browsers can develop native APIs for the same specification and still end up with different interpretations. You'll discover how these APIs can tie your code to specific browsers, forcing you to upgrade application logic whenever new browsers and new browser versions are released.

Genres: Technology, Programming, Computer Science

16 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 19, 2012

About the author

Chinese: 尼古拉斯

Nicholas C. Zakas is a front-end consultant, author, and speaker. He worked at Yahoo! for almost five years, where he was front-end tech lead for the Yahoo! homepage and a contributor to the YUI library. He is the author of Maintainable JavaScript (O’Reilly, 2012), Professional JavaScript for Web Developers (Wrox, 2012), High Performance JavaScript
(O’Reilly, 2010), and Professional Ajax (Wrox, 2007). Nicholas is a strong advocate for development best practices including progressive enhancement, accessibility, performance, scalability, and maintainability.

Reviews

[Luis Ariel Vega Soliz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Muy puntual

El contenido indica con ejemplos y palabras técnicas las desventajas que hay en general con Javascript, y la necesidad de usar bibliotecas adicionales para crear programas compatibles

[Héctor Iván Patricio Moreno · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clear and concise advice: Don't rely on the native implementations of the features of the browsers.