[okfn-dev] Who uses CoffeScript?

[Nick Stenning]

[Now sent to the list from the correct email address. Sorry for
double-posting to Elf and Rufus]

Hi Elf,

I was going to reply to this, but on rereading the email that Rufus
linked to, I find that my feelings for CoffeeScript are much the same
as they were eleven months ago (was it really so recently that I wrote
that...!?).

The only thing I would add is a response to the most commonly cited
objection to CoffeeScript: the fact that it's *different*, and many
developers haven't come across it before. I try to stress in my
earlier email that really, it's just a modified syntax to the same
language, and so most of the barriers that exist when learning a new
language don't exist with CS.

This has been my experience recently, when introducing skeptical
people to CS, often in an environment where they are pushed for time
and just want to get stuff done. They see CS as a barrier, and make a
bit of noise about how they wish they could just write Javascript.

Unfamiliarity set to one side, I have yet to find someone who doesn't
rapidly settle into CS once they realise quite how little there is to
learn. In practice, I think the biggest hurdle to adoption of CS is a
social rather than a technical one.

Best wishes,
Nick

P.S. One last thing: make sure you take advantage off the "-w" option
to `coffee`, which will automatically recompile your CS source files
when they change. See
https://github.com/okfn/annotator/blob/master/Cakefile#L29 for how we
use this on the Annotator project.

On Tue, Nov 1, 2011 at 13:46, Rufus Pollock <rufus.pollock at okfn.org> wrote:
> On 31 October 2011 20:51, elf Pavlik <perpetual-tripper at wwelves.org> wrote:
>> Hello =)
>>
>> I wonder how many of you have experimented or even uses it regularly?
>
> It was used to write annotator: <http://github.com/okfn/annotator>
>
> @Nick (in cc) or Aron (also in cc) may be able to comment as they both
> coded in it on that project. Nick was the one who switched project to
> coffee script from javascript. (see also:
> <http://lists.okfn.org/pipermail/okfn-dev/2011-February/000047.html>
> where Nick's writes about reasons for using it).
>
> Rufus
>
>> I must admit haven't give it a shot yet but most likely will try asap. Some presentation on it:
>> http://sdruby.org/podcast/90
>> http://screencasts.org/episodes/introduction-to-coffeescript
>>
>> plus keep hearing about it on node.js sites and rails 3.1 uses it by default now!
>>
>> Any comments?
>> ~ elf Pavlik ~
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> okfn-dev mailing list
>> okfn-dev at lists.okfn.org
>> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/okfn-dev
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Co-Founder, Open Knowledge Foundation
> Promoting Open Knowledge in a Digital Age
> http://www.okfn.org/ - http://blog.okfn.org/
>