Programming in CoffeeScript

Use CoffeeScript to Write Better JavaScript Code Than Ever Before!   If you can do it in JavaScript, you can do it better in CoffeeScript. And, since CoffeeScript “compiles down” to JavaScript, your code will fit neatly into virtually any web environment. In Programming in CoffeeScript, Mark Bates shows web developers why CoffeeScript is so useful and how it avoids the problems that often make JavaScript code buggy and unmanageable. He guides you through every feature and technique you need to write quality CoffeeScript code and shows how to take advantage of CoffeeScript’s increasingly robust toolset.   Bates begins with the absolute basics of running and compiling CoffeeScript and then introduces syntax, control structures, functions, collections, and classes. Through same page code comparisons, you’ll discover exactly how CoffeeScript improves on JavaScript. Next, you’ll put it to work in building applications that are powerful, flexible, maintainable, concise, reliable, and secure. Bates shares valuable tips for better development, illuminating CoffeeScript’s hidden gems and warning you about its remaining “rough edges.” The book concludes with a start-to-finish application case study showing how to code back-ends and front-ends and integrate powerful frameworks and libraries. Coverage includes Understanding the right ways to compile and execute CoffeeScript Using CoffeeScript’s clean syntax to focus on your code, not JavaScript’s distractions Working with CoffeeScript’s control structures, functions, and arguments Taking full advantage of CoffeeScript’s implementation of collections and iterators Leveraging CoffeeScript’s full class support to create complex data models Automating common application development tasks with Cake and Cakefiles Configuring Jasmine with CoffeeScript support, and using it to systematically test your code Writing Node.js server-side applications in CoffeeScript Using CoffeeScript to write jQuery and Backbone.js applications Integrating framework code to avoid “reinventing the wheel” Want a better way to create the JavaScript code your web applications need? CoffeeScript is the solution–and this book will help you master it!  

Table of Contents:
Dedication v Acknowledgments xii About the Author xiv Preface xv What Is CoffeeScript? xvii Who Is This Book For? xix How to Read This Book xix How This Book Is Organized xxi Part I: Core CoffeeScript xxii Part II: CoffeeScript in Practice xxii Installing CoffeeScript xxiii How to Run the Examples xxiii Notes xxiv Part I: Core CoffeeScript 1 Getting Started 3 The CoffeeScript REPL 3 In-Browser Compilation 6 Caveats 7 Command-Line Compilation 7 The compile Flag 7 The CoffeeScript CLI 8 The output Flag 9 The bare Flag 9 The print Flag 10 The watch Flag 10 Executing CoffeeScript Files 11 Other Options 11 Wrapping Up 12 Notes 12 2 The Basics 13 Syntax 13 Significant Whitespace 14 Function Keyword 16 Parentheses 16 Scope and Variables 18 Variable Scope in JavaScript 18 Variable Scope in CoffeeScript 19 The Anonymous Wrapper Function 20 Interpolation 23 String Interpolation 23 Interpolated Strings 23 Literal Strings 25 Heredocs 28 Comments 29 Inline Comments 29 Block Comments 30 Extended Regular Expressions 31 Wrapping Up 31 Notes 32 3 Control Structures 33 Operators and Aliases 33 Arithmetic 33 Assignment 35 Comparison 39 String 42 The Existential Operator 43 Aliases 46 The is and isnt Aliases 47 The not Alias 48 The and and or Aliases 49 The Boolean Aliases 50 The @ Alias 51 If/Unless 52 The if Statement 53 The if/else Statement 54 The if/else if Statement 56 The unless Statement 58 Inline Conditionals 60 Switch/Case Statements 60 Wrapping Up 63 Notes 63 4 Functions and Arguments 65 Function Basics 68 Arguments 70 Default Arguments 72 Splats... 75 Wrapping Up 79 Notes 79 5 Collections and Iterations 81 Arrays 81 Testing Inclusion 83 Swapping Assignment 85 Multiple Assignment aka Destructing Assignment 86 Ranges 90 Slicing Arrays 92 Replacing Array Values 94 Injecting Values 95 Objects/Hashes 96 Getting/Setting Attributes 101 Destructuring Assignment 103 Loops and Iteration 105 Iterating Arrays 105 The by Keyword 106 The when Keyword 107 Iterating Objects 108 The by Keyword 109 The when Keyword 109 The own Keyword 110 while Loops 113 until Loops 114 Comprehensions 116 The do Keyword 119 Wrapping Up 120 Notes 121 6 Classes 123 Defining Classes 123 Defining Functions 125 The constructor Function 126 Scope in Classes 127 Extending Classes 137 Class-Level Functions 145 Prototype Functions 150 Binding (-> Versus =>) 151 Wrapping Up 158 Notes 158 Part II: CoffeeScript in Practice 7 Cake and Cakefiles 161 Getting Started 161 Creating Cake Tasks 162 Running Cake Tasks 163 Using Options 163 Invoking Other Tasks 167 Wrapping Up 169 Notes 170 8 Testing with Jasmine 171 Installing Jasmine 172 Setting Up Jasmine 172 Introduction to Jasmine 175 Unit Testing 176 Before and After 181 Custom Matchers 187 Wrapping Up 190 Notes 191 9 Intro to Node.js 193 What Is Node.js? 193 Installing Node 194 Getting Started 195 Streaming Responses 197 Building a CoffeeScript Server 199 Trying Out the Server 214 Wrapping Up 215 Notes 215 10 Example: Todo List Part 1 (Server-side) 217 Installing and Setting Up Express 218 Setting Up MongoDB Using Mongoose 222 Writing the Todo API 225 Querying with Mongoose 226 Finding All Todos 227 Creating New Todos 228 Getting, Updating, and Destroying a Todo 230 Cleaning Up the Controller 232 Wrapping Up 236 Notes 236 11 Example: Todo List Part 2 (Client-side w/ jQuery) 237 Priming the HTML with Twitter Bootstrap 237 Interacting with jQuery 240 Hooking Up the New Todo Form 242 Cleaning Up the Todo List with Underscore.js Templates 244 Listing Existing Todos 247 Updating Todos 248 Deleting Todos 252 Wrapping Up 253 Notes 253 12 Example: Todo List Part 3 (Client-side w/ Backbone.js) 255 What Is Backbone.js? 255 Cleaning Up 256 Setting Up Backbone.js 256 Writing our Todo Model and Collection 260 Listing Todos Using a View 263 Creating New Todos 265 A View per Todo 268 Updating and Validating Models from Views 270 Validation 272 Deleting Models from Views 273 Wrapping Up 275 Notes 275 Index 277

About the Author :
Mark Bates is the founder and chief architect of the Boston-based consulting company Meta42 Labs. Mark spends his days focusing on new application development and consulting for his clients. At night he writes books, raises kids, and occasionally he forms a band and “tries to make it.”   Mark has been writing web applications, in one form or another, since 1996. His career started as a UI developer writing HTML and JavaScript applications before moving toward the middle(ware) with Java and Ruby. Nowadays, Mark spends his days cheating on Ruby with his new mistress, CoffeeScript.   Always wanting to share his wisdom, or more correctly just wanting to hear the sound of his own voice, Mark has spoken at several high-profile conferences, including RubyConf, RailsConf, and jQueryConf. Mark has also taught classes on Ruby and Ruby on Rails. In 2009 Mark’s first (surprisingly not his last!) book, Distributed Programming with Ruby, was published by Addison-Wesley.   Mark lives just outside of Boston with his wife, Rachel, and their two sons, Dylan and Leo. Mark can be found on the web at: http://www.markbates.com, http://twitter.com/markbates, and http://github.com/markbates.