This kind of “I broke things, so now I will jiggle things randomly until they unbreak” is not acceptable.

Linus Torvalds

Using jQuery deferreds is a little like courting a woman: you have to be careful not to make promises you can’t keep.

Me

learning Javascript used to mean you weren’t a “serious software developer”. today, not learning Javascript means the same thing.

James Governor

Using QUnit with RequireJS

I have really been enjoying James Burke’s RequireJS library: http://blog.dohertycomputing.com/post/3466960658/requirejs and have recently applied it to a project at my day job. When it came to testing the application, I decided on QUnit for unit testing, and started poking into using it with RequireJS. 

I was able to successfully run tests using the RequireJS approach, i.e., define a test module, with the code to be tested as explicit dependencies, and waiting to start the tests until the module and all its dependencies are loaded. Async behavior is handled via QUnit.stop()/start() as described in the QUnit API: http://docs.jquery.com/QUnit

define(
        [
            “my/moduletotest1”,
            “my/moduletotest2”,
            “my/moduletotest3”,
        ],
        function (moduletotest1, moduletotest2, moduletotest3) {
            return {
                RunTests: function () {
                    test(“mod1test”, function () {
                        QUnit.stop();
                        moduletotest1.ajaxyMethod(arg, function(result) {
                              deepEqual(result, matchExpression);
                              QUnit.start();
                        });
                    });

                    test(“mod2test”, function () {
                        QUnit.stop();
                        moduletotest2.ajaxyMethod(arg, function(result) {
                              equal(result, matchExpression);
                              QUnit.start();
                        });
                    });
                    …
                }
            };
});

Then in the QUnit page script:

QUnit.config.autostart = false;
require(
          [
            “UnitTests/TestModule”,
          ],
          function (testModule) {
            QUnit.start();
            testModule.RunTests();
          }
);

Works like a charm!

On inventing JS module formats and script loaders

Link: On inventing JS module formats and script loaders

Nice post by James Burke, author of RequireJS, (which I have fully embraced in my latest production app) on why the Asynchronous Module Definition (AMD) appears to be winning the JavaScript module wars. It’s a clear, concise, and cogent argument.