Errors in javascript programs [closed] - javascript

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Is there a good classification of standard javascript errors? For example, in java like programs, there are errors like ArrayIndexOutOfRange, resource leaks, race conditions etc.
Also, in Javascript few errors are not reported as exceptions (e.g., divide by zero). Are there any other similar behaviors that are not reported as runtime exceptions in javascript?

MDN has a great article about this, they can put it better than I ever could:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Error#Error_types
Also, good classification here in the ECMA standard:
ECMAScript 5.1 (Current): http://www.ecma-international.org/ecma-262/5.1/#sec-15.11.6
ECMAScript 6 (Coming soon, some features already here in certain browsers): http://www.ecma-international.org/ecma-262/5.1/#sec-15.11.6
In terms of "not being reported as runtime errors", there are some evaluations of expressions that do not halt execution of code but return indicators like NaN, e.g.:
var a = "Hello";
var b = 3;
var c = a / b; // c is "NaN"
You can use the isNaN() function to check for this. Unfortunately I don't know of an offical definite list of these scenarios (if there are more) or even how you would classify them. I guess it comes down to experience and learning the features (or quirks depending on your perspective!) of the language.

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When should I use the bignumber library? [closed]

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I am trying to understand when to use the bignumber library.
Question 1). As we know, JavaScript has an upper limitation on the Number type which is 2^53, but it also has another type, BigInt, which doesn't have a limit. Why would we use the bignumber library? Is it because it also works with decimals? Are there any other reasons?
Question 2) Let's say I have a x = new BigNumber(10000000000000000000); and now I want to multiply this by 30. Should I also transform 30 to BigNumber first and then multiply or would this be okay: 30 * x? It seems like that I didn't transform 30 to BigNumber and it still works correctly. When should I use mul from the bignumber library?
Why would we use bignumber library? is it because it also works with decimals?
Yes. A bignumber library typically works with arbitrary-precision floating-point numbers, while a bigint library (or also the builtin data type) can only handle integers.
In addition, there are quite a few libraries that implement big integer math which came into existence before the native support of BigInt in JavaScript, a rather recent addition to the language. This also means a library is necessary in older browsers.
Now I want to multiply this by 30. Should I also transform 30 to bigNumber first?
No, this is usually not necessary (but of course depends on the library).
would this would be okay: 30 * x?
No, that would not be ok. If you're working with a bignumer library, you will need to use its methods (like x.multiply(30)), not the * operator which only works with JavaScript's builtin data types.

Why does JS keep insertion order in Set? [closed]

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Randomly experimenting with JavaScript (ES6) and reading its documentation I found out that Set maintains the insertion order of its elements.
I wonder what is the rationale behind this decision? I always thought of a set as an unordered collection. Requiring anything more would lead to a more costly implementation, whereas, in my opinion, this feature is mostly unused.
Ordered Sets are very useful, consider for example:
unique_elements_in_order = [...new Set(some_array)]
In an "unsorted set" language, like python, you'd need a separate OrderedSet implementation for this to work.
Yes, theoretically, sets are not ordered, but mathematical abstractions, like sets, functions, numbers etc, are only tangentially related to similarly named objects we use in programming. Set is just a special kind of data structure, and it's up to the language designers to define its specific properties, like "Sets are in the insertion order" or "Sets can only contain hashable objects" etc.
As to the committee's motivation, some googling brought this
Mark S. Miller:
Mon Feb 13 22:31:28 PST 2012
There are many benefits to determinism. E started with non-deterministic
iteration order, which opens a covert channel hazard. I initially changed
to deterministic order merely to plug this leak. Having done so, I found it
had many software engineering benefits. For example, it becomes much easier
to write regression tests and to reproduce bugs by re-execution. In my
implementation, it also had a minor additional space and time cost. Tyler's
Waterken tables show that even the minor runtime costs I was paying were
unnecessary.
Let's not introduce yet another source of non-determinism for the sake of
an unmeasured efficiency. Let's measure, and if the cost turns out to be
high after all, then let's reconsider determinism.

How can I avoid the "last comma" gotcha (and similar) in javascript? [closed]

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In the perl word (which I'm coming from), adding a final comma when creating an object does not have any bad side effects - in fact it's encouraged in case you want to add fields later;
this article, (one of many possible sources) says:
my %weekly_temperature = (
monday => 65,
tuesday => 68,
wednesday => 71,
thursday => 53,
friday => 60,
);
A couple more tips when working with key value pairs of a hash: the code is more readable if you vertically align the fat comma (‘=>’) operators and unlike C, Perl allows the last element to have a trailing comma, which makes it easier to add elements later without generating a compile error.
In the javascript world - as I understand it - the last comma is advised against - again, a sample tip from this (one of many) article:
var car = {
colour:'red',
wheels:4,
hubcaps:'spinning',
age:4
}
The main gotcha in this notation is IE. Never ever leave a trailing comma before the closing curly brace or you’ll be in trouble.
How can I catch this and similar "gotcha's" in my javascript code?
There are lots of ways to do javascript validation. I have a plugin that runs jslint in my IDE. We also have jslint running as a build task when we build our web application.
We even do gated check-in, failing the CI build if the javascript don't comply with the jslint validation, keeping a minimum level of integrity for our javascript code. Have a look at how to do this with your favourite build system.
Also, have a look at Gulp.js. It's a command line script tool that can trigger on save and run all kinds of tools, for instance javascript integrity tools like jshint or jscs.
Here's a tutorial on how to set up Gulp.js to do just that. You will need to install node.js first, as it uses NPM - the node package manager.
https://isimmons.github.io/

What are the pros of loose typing? [closed]

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JavaScript is said to be a "loosely-typed" language. This is due to the fact that the runtime allows operations to be performed on operands of different types (via coercion):
var number = 6;
var bool = true;
var result = number + bool; //result is 7
Coming from a mostly statically-typed, strongly-typed background, I am having a hard time reasoning about the benefits of this type of approach. Sure, it can make for some pretty concise syntax, but it also seems like it could cause a nightmare when trying to track down bugs. So, besides conciseness, what are some of the benefits of loose typing and implicit type conversions?
Loosely typed languages have a number of differences which can be taken as advantages:
There is no need of interfaces. As long as an object has the method name that you need, call that method. Not using interfaces can simplify coding and reduce code size.
There is no need of generics, for very similar reasons.
"by type" function overloads are handled more simply If a function needs a string parameter, then just cast the incoming value to a string. If type checking is needed, it can be added there.
We don't have, or need, classes. The [almost] everything is an object makes passing values around much easier. No need to auto-box, no need to cast values coming out.
Objects are easily extended without breaking code. You can create an array then drop replace the indexOf method to use one uses the binary search. The end result is smaller, and IMHO, cleaner code.

Conversion from JavaScript to Python code? [closed]

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Is there a relatively quick program out there to accomplish at least the basics of this? Just a few regexes? I'm willing to do some manual conversion, but this is a pretty big set of scripts.
You can translate JavaScript to Python using Js2Py. It supports whole JavaScript and you can use it to translate large JavaScript modules like esprima.js (a JavaScript 6 parser).
Short demo:
>>> import js2py
>>> f = js2py.eval_js( "function $(a) {return a + arguments[1]}" )
>>> f
function $(a) { [python code] }
>>> f(1, 2, 3)
3
This is how the translated function looks like internally (it's rather ugly):
>>> print js2py.translate_js( "function $(a) {return a + arguments[1]}" )
from js2py.pyjs import *
var = Scope( JS_BUILTINS )
set_global_object(var)
# Code follows:
var.registers([u'$'])
#Js
def PyJsHoistedNonPyName(a, this, arguments, var=var):
var = Scope({u'a':a, u'this':this, u'arguments':arguments}, var)
var.registers([u'a'])
return (var.get(u'a')+var.get(u'arguments').get(u'1'))
PyJsHoistedNonPyName.func_name = u'$'
var.put(u'$', PyJsHoistedNonPyName)
Updated
Now several (4) years later this (almost certainly) can be done; though certainly not with RegEx.
I suggest future readers look to #Piotr Dabkowski's answer..
Or some of the other answers. (I don't know having not tried them)
Original Answer
Hm this is a hard one.
The definition of a compiler is translates from a higher level language to a lower level language.
eg python to machine-code.
or java to javascript (google has a rather famous compiler for this somewhere - its' what makes google doc easier to make)
Python to javascript compilers abound.
technically javascript to python would be a decompiler. (afaik)
I found some speculation about a javascript-python converter here: follow the tread through. it mostly speaks of how it wouldn't be too hard to do.
I can't find anything , but that doesn't mean it's no out there.
Regex is not suitable, regex is suitable only for regular languages.
programming languages are not normally regular languages. see this
This answer might be about 2 years late but how about js -> CoffeeScript -> python? If you use something like http://js2.coffee/ to convert to cs, then things like indentation and lists are already done for you.
If what you are asking is converting a few regexs in javascript to Python equivalent, the basics of regular expressions are mostly pretty standard. check out the Python re module doc. See if what you are using is documented. Also of interest to you is this page.
If you are talking about converting javascript code to Python equivalent, the best converter is you. Learn about Python, and then convert them manually. there is nothing else better than the human being. Programming constructs like loops, variables, arrays are pretty common and standard you will recognize instantly how to use them straight away.

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