--- title: "This week's JavaScript news, issue 218" publication: "JavaScript Weekly" issue: 218 published_at: "2015-02-06" canonical_url: "https://javascriptweekly.com/issues/218" --- This week's JavaScript news, issue 218 Google's JS OOP optimizations, learn ES6 in your browser, server-side rendered apps, ReactConf takeaways + more — [Read this e-mail on the Web](http://javascriptweekly.com/issues/218) JavaScript WeeklyIssue 218 — February 6, 2015[Expert ES6: An Exercise-Based ES6 Course on the Web](http://tagtree.io/courses/expert-es6/do) A simple interactive course where you read through material then complete a code exercise on each page to progress. Seems a good way to pick up some ES6 if you’re not working with it yet. Tagtree [First Impressions using React Native](http://jlongster.com/First-Impressions-using-React-Native) A pretty good overview of React Native from someone who’s been able to play with it already (it’s not fully public yet). Includes some brief code examples and a video. James Long [![Frontend Masters\](https://copm.s3.amazonaws.com/3c9c307d.png)](https://frontendmasters.com/workshops/framerjs/?utm_source=javascriptweekly&utm_medium=email)[UI Prototyping with FramerJS Online/In-Person Workshop](https://frontendmasters.com/workshops/framerjs/)Turn static mockups into interactive prototypes and learn to experiment quickly with dynamic, native-feeling animations and interactions. _Join us [live online or in-person](https://frontendmasters.com/workshops/framerjs/) on February 20th!_ Frontend MastersSponsor [You're Missing the Point of Server-Side Rendered JavaScript Apps](http://tomdale.net/2015/02/youre-missing-the-point-of-server-side-rendered-javascript-apps/) JavaScript’s raconteur-extraordinaire Tom Dale clears up some misconceptions about server-side rendered JavaScript apps, particularly in the context of his work on Ember’s [FastBoot.](http://emberjs.com/blog/2014/12/22/inside-fastboot-the-road-to-server-side-rendering.html) Tom Dale [Google SoundScript: Faster Future JavaScript OOP](http://www.2ality.com/2015/02/soundscript.html) Google is working on optimizations for a stricter dialect of regular JS that you can mark with “use stricter”; so that one day in the future, V8 will run OO code even faster. Dr. Axel Rauschmayer [Takeaways from React.js Conf 2015](http://kevinold.com/2015/01/31/takeaways-from-reactjs-conf-2015.html) A pretty good summary of some of the takeaways to be aware of from the first annual React.js Conference that took place week at Facebook HQ. Kevin Old [Let’s Write Fast JavaScript: A Few Tips](https://medium.com/the-javascript-collection/lets-write-fast-javascript-2b03c5575d9e) Things like avoiding typecasting, in-place string concatenation, and using Web Workers. Includes JSPerf test cases for each one. Mahdi Dibaiee [What the Flux?](http://jonathancreamer.com/what-the-flux/) Jonathan was initially confused by the often-associated-with-React 'Flux' architecture so once he figured it out, he's broken things down in an easier to understand way for everyone else. Jonathan Creamer Jobs - [Front-end Position at DuckDuckGo (Remote OK)](https://duck.co/help/company/hiring?utm_source=javascriptweekly&utm_medium=email)If you're an avid DuckDuckGo user and excited about what we're trying to accomplish, then please consider joining us! DuckDuckGo - [Lead Javascript Developer at Thrive (Copenhagen, Denmark) - stealth](http://thrive-ai.com/jobs?utm_source=javascriptweekly&utm_medium=email)We're a new startup with a top-tier team (ex-Podio, SK) looking for an experienced .js engineer to join us on Thrive. Funded. Generous equity, great challenges and a fun team! Thrive - [Fullstack Academy Teaches Amazing Students Advanced JavaScript. Join Us.](http://www.fullstackacademy.com/careers?utm_source=javascriptweekly&utm_medium=email)Come change tech education as an instructor at Fullstack Academy, an immersive software engineering school based in New York City. We're hiring instructors to help teach our JS driven curriculum to smart, motivated students. Fullstack Academy In Brief [JavaScript Tops Popular Languages, As Swift Rises](http://news.dice.com/2015/02/04/javascript-tops-popular-languages-as-swift-rises/) news Dice News [From Map/Reduce to JavaScript Functional Programming](https://hacks.mozilla.org/2015/01/from-mapreduce-to-javascript-functional-programming/) tutorial Mozilla Hacks [Destructuring and Recursion in ES6](http://raganwald.com/2015/02/02/destructuring.html) tutorial Reg Braithwaite [First Steps in Setting Up Travis CI on your JavaScript Project](http://orizens.com/wp/topics/first-steps-in-setting-up-travis-ci-to-your-javascript-project/) tutorial Oren Farhi [A Look at Change Detection in Angular 2](http://victorsavkin.com/post/110170125256/change-detection-in-angular-2) tutorial Victor Savkin [Synchronous Asynchronous JavaScript with ES6 Generators](http://chrisbuttery.com/articles/synchronous-asynchronous-javascript-with-es6-generators/) tutorial Chris Buttery [Immutable Data and React](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7IdS-PbEgI) video A very straightforward, direct, and visually appealing presentation. React.js Conf 2015 [Server-First Apps are a Good Idea](http://ponyfoo.com/articles/server-first-apps) opinion A response to Tom Dale’s [post](http://tomdale.net/2015/02/youre-missing-the-point-of-server-side-rendered-javascript-apps/) (above). Nicolas Bevacqua [What's So Great About React.js? A Discussion](http://www.reddit.com/r/javascript/comments/2uvz0x/whats_so_great_about_reactjs/) opinion Reddit [React Hot Loader: Tweak React Components in Real Time](http://gaearon.github.io/react-hot-loader/) tools Dan Abramov [Wallaby: An Intelligent Test Runner for JavaScript](http://wallabyjs.com/) tools Currently a ‘preview’ of a future commercial tool. Wallaby.js [Node.js Application Deployment & Hosting Simplified](http://modulus.io/?utm_campaign=Cooper%20Press%20-%20Node.js%20%26%20JavaScript%20Weekly=node.js%20newsletter=email=email) tools Modulus provides a portable, scalable and customizable Node.js hosting platform. Try it for free now. ModulusSponsor [Scala.js is No Longer Experimental](http://scala-lang.org/news/2015/02/05/scala-js-no-longer-experimental.html) tools Scala.js is a Scala to JavaScript compiler that, intriguingly, comes from the official Scala development team. scala-lang.org [How to find and fix the slowest code in your .NET application](http://www.red-gate.com/products/dotnet-development/ants-performance-profiler/?utm_source=javascriptweekly=displayemail=slowest_code=antsperformanceprofiler=email-23337) tools Find bottlenecks in your code or database boost performance with new ANTS Performance Profiler 9. Try free. Red Gate SoftwareSponsor [SqueakJS: A Squeak VM in Pure JS to Run Squeak Images on the Web](http://bertfreudenberg.github.io/SqueakJS/) tools Squeak is a popular Smalltalk dialect often used in multimedia and educational situations. Bert Freudenberg [A Quick JSFiddle Demo of WebRTC Video Chat in Several Lines of JS](http://jsfiddle.net/TawnyOwl/j228hopd/) demo Uses a service called Icecomm behind the scenes. Chat to your fellow JavaScript Weekly readers? :-) JSFiddle [Redis in The Browser Demo (The Redis key-value store running via Emscripten)](http://narma.github.io/2015/redis-in-browser/) demo Narmaru [lz-string: Fast JavaScript String Compression](http://pieroxy.net/blog/pages/lz-string/index.html) code A way to store more data in localStorage (which has a 5MB limit). pieroxy [Konva.js: A 2D HTML5 Canvas Framework](http://konvajs.github.io/) code KonvaJS [FieldVal.js: A JavaScript Validation Library](http://minoblog.io/fieldval/) code Creates structured error reports for any data. There’s also FieldVal UI, a library to enable forms to reflect FieldVal’s error result structures. Marcus Longmuir [Mprogress.js: Google Material Design-style Linear Progress Bar](http://lightningtgc.github.io/MProgress.js/) code gctang [Turn Calendar: A Calendar Component for AngularJS](http://phamductri.github.io/turn-calendar/) code Tri Pham [node-firefox: Node Modules for Working with Firefox via DevTools' Remote Protocol](https://hacks.mozilla.org/2015/02/introducing-node-firefox/) code node Mozilla Hacks [Griddle: A Simple Grid Component for Use with React](https://dynamictyped.github.io/Griddle/) code Ryan and Joel Lanciaux [Sortable: A Minimal Reorderable Drag-and-drop List Library](http://rubaxa.github.io/Sortable/) code Lebedev Konstantin Curated by [Peter Cooper](http://twitter.com/peterc) and published by [Cooperpress](https://cooperpress.com/). Like this? 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