Are there any coding standards for JavaScript? [cl

Question

What are the established coding standards for JavaScript?

Answer 1

Google has posted a Javascript guide

Answer 2

Not exactly what you're looking for, but (like Doug Crockford's vids) I think everybody who writes/edits/reviews JS should look at Chris Heilmann's slides and videos on maintainable javascript.

In the slides, slide 127, he says don't worry so much about style guides/code standards, reformat all code checked in to VCS.

Also these:

Mozilla JavaScript Tips

JavaScript Style Guide

Answer 3

You can find some simple but essential coding conventions at the Google Code Wiki.

For very detailed style guides read the Dojo Style Guide. It is going over naming conventions, file conventions, variable usage, code layout, whitespace, and comments.

Answer 4

Another reason why Crockford's JavaScript coding guidelines are a good idea to follow:

This code (below) actually returns undefined because of JavaScript's semicolon injection - which is a damn good reason to get the whole team of developers singing from the same song sheet:

return // injected semicolon, therefore returns 'undefined'
{
    javascript : "fantastic"
}; // object constructs anonymously but nothing happens with it.

Bit more about that at Beware of JavaScript semicolon insertion

Answer 5

The comp.lang.javascript Code Guidelines document points to causes of errors and problems related to javascript for web applications and how to avoid them.

Answer 6

A bit puzzled that I cannot find on the replies Idiomatic.js and jQuery Core Style Guide. Addy Osmani puts those two on the very top of full list of coding styles for JavaScript in his "JavaScript Style Guides And Beautifiers" article.

I personally prefer jQuery standard, though it doesn't much differ from Idiomatic.js. But whatever standard you choose you will need a validator to check how successful you are following it. I couldn't find any for jQuery or at least Idiomatic, but eventually came up with JS_CodeSniffer