I was playing around with handlebars the other day, and I got to a point where the json object going into my handlebars template had a date (number) that I wanted to convert and format into a date string.
I quickly ran through a few thoughts: Can I execute javascript inside the handlebars template? Nope. Can I use a JSP Scriptlet? No this is on the browser. Do I need to define a new string field on my domain object on the server just so the json comes through in a way that I can display what I want in the UI? Ugh, besides requiring a change to my domain model and recompiling, that is mixing up my server side code with my display which is not what I want.
Waaaait a second...
Javascript objects are dynamically typed! I can just format the date and add the string as a new property to the object in javascript before passing the object to my handlebars template, and reference that new property from inside the template. Problem: solved.
Ok, this sounds like a trivial exercise for anybody who has ever coded in a dynamically typed language. It even sounds trivial to me. But even after having read some javascript books (including Javascript the Good Parts... a few times), and writing and practicing javascript on the side, years of programming in Java have oriented my brain to a certain way of thinking. That way of thinking at a fundamental level includes the idea of redefining a class and recompiling if I want to add an attribute to an object.
The new ways of dynamic typing DO come. But they do not come first. That is the experience of a strongly typed programmer moving into a weakly typed language.
I quickly ran through a few thoughts: Can I execute javascript inside the handlebars template? Nope. Can I use a JSP Scriptlet? No this is on the browser. Do I need to define a new string field on my domain object on the server just so the json comes through in a way that I can display what I want in the UI? Ugh, besides requiring a change to my domain model and recompiling, that is mixing up my server side code with my display which is not what I want.
Waaaait a second...
Javascript objects are dynamically typed! I can just format the date and add the string as a new property to the object in javascript before passing the object to my handlebars template, and reference that new property from inside the template. Problem: solved.
Ok, this sounds like a trivial exercise for anybody who has ever coded in a dynamically typed language. It even sounds trivial to me. But even after having read some javascript books (including Javascript the Good Parts... a few times), and writing and practicing javascript on the side, years of programming in Java have oriented my brain to a certain way of thinking. That way of thinking at a fundamental level includes the idea of redefining a class and recompiling if I want to add an attribute to an object.
The new ways of dynamic typing DO come. But they do not come first. That is the experience of a strongly typed programmer moving into a weakly typed language.
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