Building Maintainable Javascript with Coffeescript

CoffeeScript is a little language that compiles into JavaScript. Underneath all of those embarrassing braces and semicolons, JavaScript has always had a gorgeous object model at its heart. CoffeeScript is an attempt to expose the good parts of JavaScript in a simple way.

The golden rule of CoffeeScript is: “It's just JavaScript”. The code compiles one-to-one into the equivalent JS, and there is no interpretation at runtime. You can use any existing JavaScript library seamlessly (and vice-versa). The compiled output is readable and pretty-printed, passes through JavaScript Lint without warnings, and runs in every JavaScript implementation.

In this session we will look at Coffescript, write some coffeescript code, and analyze the generated Javascript. We will look at how we can use it in our existing web development stack, seamlessly compiling the coffeescript into Javascript so it works in our development environment. We will also look at seamlessly using existing Javascript libraries like Prototype, Scriptaculous, and JQuery.