Courtesy of SlashDot, I've been playing with YSlow on the website code I look after. The results were instructive. Then I saw it linked with JSLint. :-O

JSLint's standards strike me as very arrogant. Is there any particular reason why one should insist on braces around if() and while() codeblocks? Or semi-colons after statements (they're technically a statement separator)? It also doesn't like var statements that assign, prefers === over == in a lot of cases (but I don't understand why) and doesn't like ++ and --.

This is the first time I've used any sort of "lint" tool, though, not counting the W3C HTML Validator, so perhaps it's supposed to be uber-anal and the coder needs to understand when to ignore it's complaints. (Grammar checkers work the same way.)

Wade.

After all, I fed it code that had been fairly carefully hand-optimized. :)

Wade.

I can understand it complaining about braces and semi-colons. But it also complains about things like assigning to variable declarations, and for some reason it didn't like multiple clauses in if statements.

Then, too, the optimization wasn't purely for code-size; I was trying to make the code efficient as far as I understand Javascript execution. I certainly don't claim to be a great Javascript programmer, either, in case I mistakenly gave that impression.

Wade.

[link|http://developer.yahoo.com/yslow|Link for YSlow].

I'm probably being stubborn, but I like the freedom of semi-colons being optional and tend to omit then when I can. Since they're required in widespread languages C, Java, PHP and Perl, I think some people that argue for their use in Javascript may simply be highly unfamiliar with programming without them. But I program in Icon, too, where (like in Javascript) semi-colons are optional for the same reasons and with the same rules. I have not ever had Javascript's semi-colon insertion do something unpredictable, BTW.

Similarly, for braces around single-statement blocks. I look for the indent, anyway, so braces in that case are not a help.

At least JSLint doesn't apply its normal whitespace rules: I much prefer if( a == b ) over if (a == b). JSLint prefers the latter. A colleague in a former workplace thought I was mad, but wasn't going to argue over it. Some weeks later he voluntarily said he decided he liked my method because it was more readable! :-D

The = vs == one has caught me on occassion over the years, in C, PHP and Javascript, though not very often. I like your solution. I might try that.

Wade.