"JavaScript, the Functional Way" is a little seminar I gave to the Parse.ly team (and atother places) about my understanding of the JavaScript language. As a dedicated Pythonista who has programmed for the web since 1999, I have had an evolving relationship with the language that has mirrored its history.

I was one of the "script kiddies" that Douglas Crockford deplores for ruining the language. I still remember doing "DHTML" -- the hot term for what today a lot of people call Ajax, but what is really browser DOM scripting.

Later on in life, I left JavaScript behind to focus more on "real" programming languages, such as C, Java, and Python. It was only when I started Parse.ly and returned to web programming in the age of JavaScript frameworks and libraries that I rediscovered the core language for what it is -- a simple, functional language with a few quirks, but a relatively clean core.

This presentation is meant to help you appreciate that core, while protecting yourself against the bad parts, and being practical about engineering with the language's limitations in mind.

Finally, I have expanded this presentation to talk about Node.JS, a project that has -- more than anything else -- made JavaScript a more mature language, and expanded its scope beyond client-side scripting.