Books about Javascript API design best practices

Question

Hi,

Anyone can suggest good books about Javascript API design good practices? What are the common practices developed by Google, Twitter, Facebook in their APIs. Code organization, request control etc.

Answer 1

You may want to check out:

• Pro JavaScript Design Patterns by Ross Harmes and Dustin Diaz

Dustin Diaz, worked at Yahoo, Google and now works for Twitter. Ross Harmes, was working for Yahoo when the book was written, and apparently still is.

You may also want to check the following Google I/O talk from 2008 presented by Diaz, where he discusses some topics from this book:

• Google I/O 2008 - Design Patterns in an Expressive Language

I would also suggest:

• Pro JavaScript Techniques by John Resig

John Resig is the creator of jQuery, and there is a full section in the book where he writes about reusable code, object oriented JavaScript and tools for debugging and testing, which appear to target the topics you are researching.

Last but not least, you may want to search for some articles and talks by Nicholas Zakas, from Yahoo. This is one interesting talk that I found on these topics:

• Maintainable JavaScript

Answer 2

I know maybe it is not the most appropriated answer to your question, nevertheless I think the book JavaScript: The Good Parts by Douglas Crockford is a must read for anyone that uses JavaScript.

Answer 3

The books are fine, but I also suggest the talks at Yahoo Theater. They are are very good, even if you're not going to use their YUI library. Both Crockford and Resig are there, together with Brendan Eich and others.