## Or: Rails and JavaScript, Part 5 _A quick program note: If you like this newsletter, you might like my recent books: "Modern Front-End Development for Rails" ([Ebook](https://pragprog.com/titles/nrclient/modern-front-end-development-for-rails/)) ([Amazon](https://amzn.to/37HzR27)) and "Modern CSS With Tailwind" ([Ebook](https://pragprog.com/titles/tailwind/modern-css-with-tailwind/)) ([Amazon](https://amzn.to/3xME2V5)). If you've already read and enjoyed either book, I would greatly appreciate your help...

## It's hard to predict... _Previously on Locally Sourced: Well, we’ve been talking about the history of Rails and JavaScript: [part 1](/blog/2020/06/rails-and-javascript-part-1/), [part 2](/blog/2020/07/rails-and-javascript-part-2/), and [part 3](/blog/2020/07/rails-and-javascript-part-three/), and we’ve finally caught up to the present time, so I guess it’s time to talk about the future. Also, my [Rails and...

## The Webpackening _Previously on Locally Sourced: Rails came out and let [people do Ajax](/blog/2020/06/rails-and-javascript-part-1/), when Ajax was a thing. Then Ajax was less of a thing and Rails let people [write CoffeeScript, and use Sprockets](/blog/2020/07/rails-and-javascript-part-2/). Also, I wrote a book on [Modern Front-End Programming with Rails](https://pragprog.com/titles/nrclient/modern-front-end-development-for-rails/), which is relevant...

## UJS, CoffeeScript and Sprockets, oh my. _Previously on Locally Sourced: I wrote about the early years of [Rails and JavaScript](/blog/2020/06/rails-and-javascript-part-1/). Which made it to [Ruby Weekly](http://rubyweekly.com). Also, my [Rails and JavaScript book](https://pragprog.com/titles/nrclient/modern-front-end-development-for-rails/) is still on sale._ _A quick program note: If you’ve liked the [Entropy Essays](/tags/entropy/), I’m doing a...

## You got your Rails in my JavaScript... _Previously on Locally Sourced: Well, in 2005 I came across a cool web framework called Ruby on Rails. More recently, I wrote a book about integrating Rails and front-end tools. If you want, you could [buy it](https://pragprog.com/titles/nrclient/modern-front-end-development-for-rails/). Today, I thought I’d go...

## Yes, I really do need 700 LEGO bricks in order to flip that light switch... _Program note: This essay is timed to the release of the draft-complete beta of Modern Front-End Programming with Rails. They won’t all be about the book, promise. (There will be one or two more...

You have no idea how happy I am to announce that Book 4 of _Master Space and Time with JavaScript: Ember_ is now on sale. You can buy it at [/mstwjs](/mstwjs) It’s not done, of course. But it’s off to a good start, and I think it’s going to be...

Here’s some JavaScript: var foo = function(a, b) { return a * b }; var bar = function(func) { return function() { return func.apply(this, arguments) }; }; baz = bar(foo); console.log(baz(2, 3)); What we have here is a function, `bar`, that both takes a function as an argument and returns...

The reported errata for [Master Time and Space With JavaScript](/mstwjs) ([buy it here](/mstwjs)) has been pretty light so far. A bunch of typos, some setup weirdness. And one interesting issue worth exploring. What is a dependency, and maybe more to the point, where is a dependency? This issue was raised...

And now, the return of the semi-occasional link post. I’m going to try to do this at least once a week, but who knows. If you are writing JavaScript, you should be looking at [Justin Searls](https://twitter.com/#!/searlsware) and his JavaScript testing tools. Justin posted the slides for what looks like [a...

Now that the [new book](mstjs-form) is public, I’m going to start doing more frequent status updates. It’s going to be weird for me, after keeping the project under wraps for so long, but I’m sure we will all get by. When the book, shall we say, reverted back to me,...

Here’s what I’ve got. 2 chapters introducing jQuery and Jasmine via a walkthrough of a simple piece of JavaScript functionality. 1 need to convert all my text from its current proprietary format to something more Markdown based. 1 genuinely silly conceit tying together the application that gets built in the...

So… The JavaScript book that I had contracted to do with Pragmatic will no longer be published by them. I need to be careful as I write about this. I don’t want to be defensive – I’m proud of the work I did, and I like the book I was...

Okay, the blog has been very quiet for the last month or so. Please be polite and pretend you noticed. I’ve alluded online to a new book one or two places and now I think it’s far enough along that I can mention it in public without being _too_ scared....

### Book Status RSpec chapter draft handed in to edit. It's going to need a better conclusion. A lot changed in this one, relative to the Lulu version -- this is probably the chapter most affected by my own personal experience since it's original version. ### Links Haven't done a...

### Book Status Beta 4 should be going out Real Soon Now. As far as I know everything is ready and we're just waiting for it to actually be generated. Still working on legacy coding chapter. ### Links A couple of links about hiring today. One debate is between [Ben...

### Book Status And now I turn my lonely eyes to the chapter on testing legacy code. I liked this chapter in the original book, and it's something I get asked about pretty consistently, so I really want to make it great. ### Links I'm personally going to spend a...

### Hey, where were you? Sorry about that, I spent most of last week running the Obtiva Ruby/Rails/TDD 4-day boot camp training, and I didn't have time to do this daily catchup. Hey, if you think you need me or somebody like me to come to your company and blather...