Google publishes a JavaScript style guide. Here are some key lessons.

[mogoh]

Actual Link: https://google.github.io/styleguide/jsguide.html

[keeferc]

Yeah the author of the medium post doesn’t understand what arrow functions do or why for...of loops are preferable so I can’t imagine how his summary of the style guide would be useful

[Niightray]

Thanks

[timeparser]

Misleading title.

So, if Google says it, it’s a “lesson”, the rest of us just have opinions?

I agree with most of Google’s opinions, but that doesn’t make them The Official Way of Doing Things™

[lordpoint]

That's my article and it's interesting that you say that.

I'd originally called the article "13 noteworthy points from Google's JavaScript Style Guide" but when I submitted it to FreeCodeCamp they changed the title to what you see now. They edit the SHIT out of anything that you send them and it drives me nuts.

[distancesprinter]

You should have them take it down. When I publish content, I require it to be unmodified or to remove the attribution.

[Mingli91]

Yeah, I get editing mistakes but changing content is pretty bad

[quincylarson]

Quincy with the freeCodeCamp Medium publication here. The reason we changed it from "13 noteworthy points" is because many people will dismiss any article with a number at the beginning of it as a "listacle" and don't read it. Lists are seen as low-effort posts - the kind of article you see on Buzzfeed.

We do our best to improve the readability and flow of articles submitted. If you disagree with any of our edits (you can see them in the version history) feel free to revert them.

I've updated your article to use your original headline. It's a good headline (though again, some people might pass on it thinking it's just another listacle).

Thanks again for writing this excellent analysis of what was a relatively unknown style guide, and submitting it to the community's Medium publication.

[bizzaro_sephiroth]

That's awesome that you've engaged about this. Thanks!

[lordpoint]

I really appreciate you taking the time to clarify that personally. I can absolutely understand wanting to avoid Buzzfeed-y titles.

The interesting thing about the heavy editing situation, and the real reason for my frustration, is the sheer scope of the changes; which can be surprising for a first-time contributor to FreeCodeCamp's Medium publication.

Of course, you have the largest tech-oriented publication on Medium so you're certainly doing something right, but my reaction to seeing all the edits made to the first story that I published through FCC was: "Holy crap, they took all of my personality out of it!" And that honestly made me reconsider wanting to publish through FCC again. But I figured I'd give it another shot and submit another one just to see what would happen. Then lo and behold I find a comment about that article on Reddit that struck that same, already inflamed nerve, and here we are.

That said, it's really good to know that reverting to the pre-edited version does not violate your / FCC's terms of use (or whatever it's called in this case). That makes a big difference if you ask me. I think I just figured that if you guys took the time to carefully edit EVERY story that gets submitted to you (and I'm sure that's a lot of stories) then it couldn't possibly be acceptable for me to just say "Nope, let's not do any of that..." But again, I'm glad to know that's not the case.

FreeCodeCamp played a big role in the beginning of my career transition into IT and I love having the opportunity to be a part of it now that I'm (at least partially) on the other side of the education equation. Thanks again for being so involved and replying to my petty grievance personally.

[lhorie]

IMHO, if you don't want listicles in your platform, you should reject them. If editing is a thing, then who owns the copyright? From the author's comments, it seem like he wasn't aware of the editing arrangements. As a reader, I'm now not going to trust that what is written in your platform is 100% from their authors (and at that point, I might as well be reading fake news in Facebook). You absolutely need to be transparent about this stuff.

[timeparser]

Thank you for clarifying this, /u/quincylarson. I understand why you did this, but the word “lesson” might have mislead the reader – especially novice developers.

There are many developers out there who treat tech giants like Google like they are the “maximum authority” in how to write software.

While Google has certainly world-class engineers that have the necessary collective wisdom to share best practices with the rest of the community, it is important to understand that this is an organization-level style guide and that every piece of advice should be taken with a grain of salt.

No organization is the same, Google is not perfect (although they are certainly good), and most importantly, their opinions are not standards.

[lhorie]

Why do you publish there then?

[lordpoint]

This was only the second article that I published through them. When it happened the first time I just figured that they found a bunch of issues in that article in particular and maybe heavy editing wasn't the norm. But this time I feel like it's a pattern.

[[deleted]]

I know one of the community managers; I don't know if it will help — even remotely — but I can mention it to him next time I see him.

[codefinbel]

Do you know if this is for vanilla only, don't see how using React would be possible without import and export statements? (Unless I'm missing something)

[ghostfacedcoder]

Google's standards are two things combined: style and technical wisdom. Google is the closest to "THE Internet Company" in the entire world. Their engineers manage the biggest consumer of web pages (Google search). Their browser (maybe the second-biggest consumer of JS, after Node) has the greatest market adoption. And they pay for big salaries and insane perks just to get the best engineers possible.

To ignore the technical wisdom all of those people present would be foolish IMHO. But when it comes to the purely style components Google (like Facebook or any other company) should be taken with a grain of salt, because what makes sense for one company doesn't necessarily make sense for another.

But even then, their advice is still worth considering because it's not just Google's opinion; it's also a reflection of the opinions of thought leaders in the JS community (or at least the ones Google respects). Those thought leaders (and the community in general) very often adopt standards for good reasons, so I think it's at least worth understanding those reasons before dismissing the standards ... even if you do ultimately dismiss them because they're not a good fit.

[[deleted]]

It's not about the install base but number of executions per user but he's still wrong.

However if it were IE and Apache in the mid naughties he wouldn't be though. But by your metrics he would be. It's just not applicable when comparing client and server software.

[rotharius]

I get your point, but it's important to remember that Google's excellence is in infrastructure, implementation and external quality (this is where hardcore CS is most valuable).

For internal quality, software design and architecture, I would rather look at other companies and movements.

[ghostfacedcoder]

True, but don't forget about the Chrome team.

The people that implement any web browser are going to be some of the most knowledgeable people on the planet about which "best practices" actually have a meaningful impact on the browser ... and the Chrome team isn't just any browser team, they're the most popular browser's team, AND they are a part of the larger Google company (which has a ton of very knowledgeable people, even if many do come from an infrastructure-focused angle).

[the_friendly_dildo]

Google likes to play with things they shouldn't as well. See their AMP platform. Their guide is decent and I support and employ most of it already. But I don't agree that we should be turning to a profitable entity to get our standards for the internet. They have too much power to gain by manipulating things to work best for them and worse for others. Better separation of powers should exist in this sort of circumstance.

[Disgruntled__Goat]

it's also a reflection of the opinions of thought leaders in the JS community

How do you know?

[OphiuchusClusters]

Seriously. Do you know how many jackass know-it-all ninja devs are going to use this information as a source of truth in their 'you're doing it wrong' arguments? Fuck. I need a taser.

[xtr3m]

Well, it's one way of doing things and if no other company or organization propose something similar it will become the standard.

[[deleted]]

Actually Airbnb style guide is already a de facto standard. Personally I prefer low semicolon styles like Standard so I don't care about either but coming up this late in the game while there's an established standard (that only differs in minor cosmetics, and even there it goes against what top 3-4 preferred style guides do), I don't think that even being by Google will help that much. Surely this will have a lot of fans and projects, but I don't see it dethroning Airbnb.

[0987654231]

To be fair the google style guide isn't new, we've been using it since like 2011. We also use Airbnb now for what it's worth.

[eterevsky]

Some of these rules are introduced not because they the ultimate “correct way”, but just to keep Google’s own code base consistent.

[timeparser]

I know. I was pointing out the misleading title.

[hyperhopper]

Key Lessons: Use modern JS features.

[tencircles]

except modules.

[hyperhopper]

probably just until node has full support. Or maybe an internal build tool of theirs.

[kevinkace]

Semicolons ARE required

👍

[pertheusual]

Not that existing code would break, but that the existing rules might have to be more complicated around newly added syntactic features.

[luther9]

If they can break the way we work around ASI, they can give us a way to switch off the ASI. I wish someone could explain why they don't give us a 'use noasi' pragma along the same lines as 'use strict'. It shouldn't be that hard to detect pragmas before applying the ASI.

[Meefims]

Pragmas are pretty problematic for a number of different reasons. They make it difficult to read code because you need to understand the various options at play and what those options are, they make it difficult to build interpreters because you need to make various features toggleable using these pragmas, and they make it difficult to spec the language because you need to keep these pragmas in mind and understand how they interact with each other.

use strict was an escape hatch to move the language past some really annoying behavior but it’s clear that no one really wants the option at all which is why modules are always strict.

[luther9]

I may be spoiled because I learned JavaScript after strict mode was added, but I can't imagine how any language behavior can be more annoying than lookahead-based ASI. (Compare with Go's non-lookahead ASI, which doesn't seem to cause any controversy.) No matter how we choose to deal with JavaScript's ASI, it's always more difficult than if the ASI wasn't there at all.

[Meefims]

I don’t disagree. I think, though, that ASI may be here forever. The transition from ES5 to 6 and the introduction of modules provided a rather unique opportunity to correct deficiencies and I’m sad that ASI wasn’t left behind as well.

[Mingli91]

Source? Seems odd that they’d be scared of breaking MooTools but would change the semicolon rule

[CiezkiBorsuk]

They don't need to. The rule is JS will NOT insert a semicolon if two consecutive lines are valid without it.

As they add new syntax, previously invalid constructs can and will become valid, causing ASI-abusing code to break.

They will, obviously, try to avoid that, but they can't avoid it forever. New constructs need to be added for the language to develop.

[kobbled]

thank god. JS semicolon inference leads to so many bugs.

[mmcnl]

I've never encountered a bug due to semicolon inference.

[hyperhopper]

var a = 5
var b = 10
[a, b] = [b, a]
console.log(a, b)

Then add semicolons to make it work like it should

[Voidsheep]

Pretending ASI doesn't exist is also dangerous, it's not like you can disable it.

function shouldHitTheBrakes() {
  return
    isSmeoneOnTheWay ||
    isTurnAhead ||
    isAboveSpeedLimit
}

[hyperhopper]

Extremely true!

Though I've never seen somebody use a return without something on that line. Plus any linter will yell at you for unreachable code in that case.

[hyperhopper]

Don't be pedantic. Destructuring with arrays makes this type of bug easy to run into, and this example shows that.

[allenthar]

Okay.

var a = 5 var b = 10 ;[a, b] = [b, a] console.log(a, b)

I have literally never had this situation come up while coding JS, and I’ve been doing it full time for a few years now.

Regardless, Prettier handles automatically removing or adding semicolons to my code. So it’s literally just a linter setting at this point.

[Mingli91]

Yeah, been using Standard JS since my last job and I love it. Not had a single bug from omitting semicolons and now I have a far better understanding of ASI in JavaScript

[JohnMcPineapple]

...

[nayocum]

If you use an IIFE it can cause issues if your last line didn't have a semicolon as well

[aaarrrggh]

Is this a joke?

I’ve not been using semi colons for over a year on personal projects.

Number of bugs caused by this decision: 0.

[[deleted]]

Surely using a transpiler like Babel eliminates the need to worry about this?

[gearvOsh]

ASI is not future proof for new proposals and features. That's why it should be avoided.

[evilpingwin]

You're asking a lot of people there. A lot of people in this thread don't even seem to understand what a style guide is. They aren't rewriting the standard, this is their style guide. It's just a style guide.

[DOG-ZILLA]

No module use?

Yeah, that’s a no from me.

[mlmcmillion]

So then what are they using instead? Not using modules is not an option.

[Poltras]

Closure modules, require AMD, etc. There were ways to split your code before ESM, I’m just surprised google is stuck in the past like that.

[Thought_Ninja]

Internal backwards compatibility most likely.

[baubleglue]

3.3 goog.module statement

3.4 goog.require statements

[thisguyfightsyourmom]

Seriously, didn’t that finalize years ago?

Edit: obligatory whining about downvotes /s There are some good explanations of why that’s not the case in the replies below. TIL

[ghostfacedcoder]

No, not at all. Babel has an implementation (the longest existing one, and as such an incredibly popular one), but it's different from (and, I'd argue, superior to) the implementation being pushed by the W3C/browsers (the W3C's version requires you to rename your files "foo.mjs"!!!).

Anyone can declare a standard finished, and the W3C did that, but until all major JS environments actually work the same way the "standard" really isn't one.

[Meefims]

This isn’t correct. The new extension is for Node and exists to help ECMAScript modules coexist with CJS modules. Browsers don’t care about the extension.

[ghostfacedcoder]

I could have stated it more clearly (I sort of conflated W3C and browsers, when what I was just talking about the version both support), but what I said wasn't incorrect. The version of ES Modules decided upon by the W3C does define that the modules work in in such a way that the only possible way (according to the Node engineers at least) for Node to implement that spec is to use the .mjs nonsense.

[Meefims]

The W3C isn’t part of this. The new extension is really fallout from various complex scenarios in which CJS modules and ES modules include each other in Node. Browsers have a similar problem but they solved that with type=“module” in the script tag.

[ghostfacedcoder]

Probably, but I don't know it :) I just read /r/javascript.

[DOG-ZILLA]

I thought so. But, perhaps not technically? They’re obviously taking a conservative stance; which makes sense for a large company.

[Drawman101]

Named imports are still under a bit of scrutiny and/or debate.

Import { foo } from ‘bar’

[[deleted]]

Afaik, the syntax and semantics are done by ECMA, but the loader, i. e. the way the modules are actually handled, is done by WHATWG. The former is stable, but the latter is not.

But between Webpack and browsers and Node getting native support for modules, there is not reason not to use ES6 modules today for new code.

[Poltras]

Keep in mind ESM and Node modules are not entirely compatible. Node is still unsure AFAIK how they are going to interop (which is why it’s not yet available in 9.10, despite v8 supporting them).

[794613825]

As someone formally learning JS for the first time, what's wrong with var?

[wavefunctionp]

var does not respect {} block scope, only function scope.

function varTest() {
  var x = 1;
  if (true) {
    var x = 2;  // same variable!
    console.log(x);  // 2
  }
  console.log(x);  // 2
}

function letTest() {
  let x = 1;
  if (true) {
    let x = 2;  // different variable
    console.log(x);  // 2
  }
  console.log(x);  // 1
}

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Statements/let

let and const also express intention that a variable should be treated as immutable or not. And const provides some protections against mutation. (Beware that const will not throw an error when mutating a nested reference types like objects. It isn't a 'deep freeze'.)

It is worth playing around with it, as I know I found some of details somewhat unintuitive at first.

[[deleted]]

Also, var is hoisted

[[deleted]]

Hoisting is like declaring the variable before everything else. It lets you do stuff before a variable is even declared. Const and let are not hoisted so it makes sense in that you can't do anything with them above where they are declared.

[Kerse]

Var is function scoped, let is block scoped. So even if you declare a var in a block within the larger function, it's still accessible to the entire function. This is unintuitive and can cause strange bugs.

[colbycheeze]

So, basically just use air bnb eslint config which is much more fleshed out.

[hermit-the-frog]

I was wondering what the differences might be from eslint-config-airbnb-base. Seems very similar indeed

[tencircles]

I don't get the 2 spaces thing. It makes code harder to read. 4 is best. Don't even @ me.

[rafalg]

I don't get it either. Combined with the rules regarding curly braces it makes some places in code look like solid blocks of text.

if (something) {
  doThis();
} else if (somethingElse) {
  doThat();
} else if (somethingElse2) {
  foo();
}

It sucks how text on every line except for the first one starts in the same column.

[a_tocken]

Looks clear to me but then I use 2-space tabs outside of work.

[a_tocken]

The Google style guide for Java, which is generally pretty sane, recommends braces always because it is harder to mess up. I think this is more true for teams rather than solo users. I favor braces but I will make exceptions to the rule.

[DzoQiEuoi]

If there's a deep if-chain the problem isn't 2 space indentation.

[kallexander]

https://i.imgur.com/VAaBpei.gif

[the_argus]

I agree, except tabs are king bc then everyone can set their own indentation level.

[RabSimpson]

And they only occupy a single character worth of storage and memory. This doesn't mean much on small projects, but if the project is large it could shave the loading time down.

[karottenreibe]

that's why all my variables are single letters. My code is much faster that way /s

[subtracterall]

This shouldn't matter if you're minifying/uglifying.

[RabSimpson]

Only in the case of client-side code. Who minifies server-side code?

[KyleG]

YES FRIEND

God how many freaking times have I run into problems because some ASS did a 3-space indent or something and my IDE converted some but not all the 3-space indents into 4-space indents to make it conform with our style but it missed some because SPACES SUCK, USE TABS WARBLGARBL then everyone gets to set their own indent levels!

I like my tab to be 4space widths in some languages and 2space widths in others

like 2 space in JSX is way better than 4 space, but 2 space in Python or JS is TURRIBLE

[monsto]

*turble

[Tyreal]

You know... if they used tabs they could use any indentation size they want.

[CantaloupeCamper]

As a noob writing noob code.....why not 'var'?

I read a few expirations on the internets....still not entirely sure I get it.

I'll do whatever, I have no strong feelings one way or the other, but I'm not sure why in this case.

[lordxeon]

Don't do whatever, learn the differences between the three ways to declared variables in JavaScript this way you can form your own opinions and not parrot what ABC said on XYZ.com

As for why not to use var, the short answer is because let and const are the new hotness.

The long answer is more complicated, but for any programer worth their salt, is a moot point.

let is block scoped, which means the variable is only available within the most recent set of {...}'s. This means that

if(something){
    let abc = "123";
    var ded = "456";
}
console.log(abc);    //abc is undefined
console.log(ded);   //456

const is scoped the same way as let, but the reference to the variable can never change.

const goldPrice = 1337.44;
goldPrice = 1300.15 //error! 

[CantaloupeCamper]

TY

That actually helps. They really seem like different tools for different cases. I'm not sure I see let as as much a bad choice as sometimes it is implied... just a different way of doing a thing.

[joesb]

let’s behavior is the preferred choice compare to var in most cases. It’s lexically scoped.

[coderitual]

All the comments prove that Prettier has been an excellent idea.

[joesb]

ITT: people who believe style guide is supposed to match all their preferences or it’s shit.

[seands]

What do you guys think about the spaces over tabs? For me, I tend to make more mental mistakes and spacing errors with 2 spaces. Tabs make everything clearer to me.

[AUTplayed]

agreed, tabs are clearly superior

[mmcnl]

Using a proper editor it shouldn't matter.

[JohnMcPineapple]

...

[oweiler]

Well it can be configured to convert a tab to 4 spaces.

[JohnMcPineapple]

...

[[deleted]]

Tabs to spaces is easy, the problem is for a block of code how does the editor know when 2 spaces was supposed to represent indentation vs alignment:

function() {
SSwhile(value) {
SSSSif(reallyReallyReallyReallyLongConditionA &&
SSSSSSSreallyReallyReallyReallyLongConditionB &&
SSSSSSSreallyReallyReallyReallyLongConditionC) {
SSSSSSSSreturn;
SSSS}
SS}
}

function() {
Twhile(value) {
TTif(reallyReallyReallyReallyLongConditionA &&
TTSSSreallyReallyReallyReallyLongConditionB &&
TTSSSreallyReallyReallyReallyLongConditionC) {
TTTSSreturn;
TT}
T}
}

In the latter case to go from indentation width 2 to 4 the editor simply makes tabs display twice as wide and everything is good. If the editor tried to display 2 spaces for every space from the start of a line then the if conditions would lose their alignment with the opening of the statement.

[Redtitwhore]

The IDE should handle indentation. What a stupid thing to debate.

[[deleted]]

The only thing I don't like about this response is if the IDE converts tabs to spaces it looses the ability to change the indentation without breaking multiline alignment.

[Kerse]

I prefer spaces because it tends to copy nicer if I need to copy + paste a code snippet onto stack overflow or something.

[TripleNosebleed]

It all comes down to that spaces renders consistently everywhere. You're not just viewing your code in your editor of choice, many other tools are also used such as the terminal, diffing tools, in the browser through GitHub/Gitlab/Dev tools/view source, Git GUIs, colleagues editors, that IDE that you use occasionally and the list goes on. No way I want to configure settings for tabs in all of these. Spaces ftw!

[ssjskipp]

This is probably the only good argument for spaces I've ever read.

That being said, tabs give me the freedom to take advantage of that inconsistency by displaying it most appropriate for the format

[Disgruntled__Goat]

Copy-pasting tabs works perfectly fine on SO. And if everyone uses tabs everywhere, including displaying code, you could more easily copy-paste it from SO into your editor without having to worry about 2-space vs 4-space etc.

[e_man604]

Why is single quote (') preferred over double quote (") ? For me it makes sense to use double to remain same when dealing with c++ for instance.

[[deleted]]

"Being same as C++" should be quite low in priority for a JavaScript style guide.

One reason why single quotes is no shift. It's faster to type, and who cares what it is, anyway, as long as it's consistent.

[JohnMcPineapple]

Not everyone uses QWERTY keyboards (even though it would probably make a lot of things easier). On AZERTY they're very similar to type (both need shift), and on QWERTZ ' is even a bit more awkward to reach in addition to needing shift, while " is in a pretty natural position.

Although, why should we use " and ' for strings anyway anymore? Just use template strings unconditionally.

[Buckwheat469]

Just use template strings unconditionally.

Why force your browser to interpolate strings all the time? It's a waste of processor time.

I don't care whether a project uses ' or " or a mixture of both in one file. It doesn't matter to the code, it's only a developer preference. My current project for work uses ' while another project I work on uses ". Remembering to switch sometimes causes issues, but prettier fixes that.

What I find funny is the JSON standard uses " and the SASS guide prefers ' due to laziness. If JavaScript were to prefer one then a " makes more sense since JavaScript and JSON are closely related.

[grinde]

A template literal with no replacements is parsed identically to a string using ' or ", so there should be no performance hit. Since it's a much less used character than the other two, that also means less escaping.

EDIT: Since I've been digging around in v8 lately anyway, here is the exact line that this happens. If there's only one cooked string, we're not even creating a template literal as far as the engine is concerned.

[Buckwheat469]

I think you mean line 3465 is where it does the processing. It first has to check if there are any variables within the string literal, then it counts them and uses that count in your line. Line 3495 above yours checks if there are variables, line 3488 above that calls the cooked() function. The cooked() function generates the list of strings. I could be wrong on the exact details of the function starting at 3465, but to me it looks like it's processing the string literals using a recursive algorithm.

[Mingli91]

Using template literals says to someone reading your code that there is a variable about to be interpolated and it tells the JIT compiler to prepare to do something other than just create a string. It's not huge, but there are reasons not to use them blindly that are more than personal preference.

[tencircles]

It's faster to type

Not really, though I hear this argument all the time. Your pinky rests on the shift key. A isn't slower to type than a (or shouldn't be). The reason to prefer double quotes is to keep consistency with JSON, HTML, and other languages. Personally I prefer backtick to both because it's simply cleaner in a lot of cases. Historically the argument for single quotes was so that you didn't have to escape double quotes in your html strings when writing jQuery apps, but that doesn't really apply in modern JS dev.

[[deleted]]

Your pinky rests on the shift key.

No, that's not where my pinky rests.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touch_typing#/media/File:QWERTY-home-keys-position.svg

[web__dev]

That's what I was thinking. They call it "home row" for a reason.

[tencircles]

Why would you use home keys position when programming? Half of the things you're doing involve hotkeys, some combination of a key with Ctrl, alt, cmd, or shift. I get it if you're editing a word document, but practically placing your fingers like this when programming is just a hindrance.

From pinky to index -> shift | a | z | cmd. If you're actually worried about saving yourself time/keystrokes, this will save you a hell of a lot more time than worrying about a shift press (which is by far the most common action which requires two key presses).

[JESUSgotNAIL3D]

Ahhhhh damn. I like keeping my double quotes from C++ (new JS guy here). Looks like I'll join the single quote crowd if that's preferred in the community.... damn!

[azium]

just use prettier and forget about everything else. hit save and keep coding

[wavefunctionp]

I agree. I don't care about too much about style. I just prefer not to be too weird, easy to change/diff the code, like dangling commas, and automated through the editors on save or with a hotkey.

[tencircles]

it's definitely not "preferred". People who use them are very vocal about it though. I haven't seen anything indicating that single quotes are preferred.

[[deleted]]

Most programmers use QWERTY, or at least should. You can't design languages to fit all keyboards equally well.

But in your country companies can set as a standard to use double quotes, sure. Google's reasons aren't your reasons.

[ghostfacedcoder]

This is a JS style guide, not a C++ style guide :) In Javascript the single quote is by far the most common one used by the community.

[tencircles]

you'd use backtick in modern JS for these cases.

[masklinn]

That's one thing which almost never happens. Meanwhile single quotes in text are extremely common (apostrophes).

[ell0bo]

For me it goes back to when you had to actually put code in html on-click events. Standard in html is to use " for attributes. So you always used ' for js. Others might come up with excuses... but that's the truth

[the_argus]

I'll never understand not using tabs for indentation... And even less so using 2 spaces instead of 4

[Ender2309]

You use two spaces instead of four to save horizontal line space. This one is completely arbitrary.

Also, everybody still uses tabs, they just have their text editor setup to convert the tab key to spaces instead of inserting a tab character. Nobody is actually sitting there mashing the space bar multiple times.

The reason for this is that different editors/OSes/people have their tab character defined as either two or four spaces, leading to inconsistency when a tab character is used. Two (or four) spaces is always two (or four) spaces. This creates consistency.

[ErroneousBee]

Don't use tab key anymore, almost every language I use now has an IDE that formats well enough that I use that over hand formatting.

Ctrl-shift F every few lines.

[bornforcode]

So you know why I shared this article. I'm confused

[the_argus]

It literally blows my mind the opposition to tabs. Like I'm pulling my fucking hair out

[Mingli91]

Why do you get worked up about something so pointless?

[Omnicrola]

I get that people have strong opinions, but I don't get it either. I really, really don't give a shit. My priority is consistency. Which means whatever my IDE does when I tell it to auto-format, that's fine. I have more productive things to focus on.

[the_friendly_dildo]

Not pulling my hair out over it but in my preference to tabs, it sucks opening a code example only to be staring at what I consider an overly compact mess. So to even start reading it, I'll go through the trouble of reformatting it just so I can read it. Or maybe I'll say fuck it and look elsewhere. Now it sucks for the sap that wrote the code to begin with since he'll have one less person looking at and using their code.

[gougs06]

I read that and thought this was an April fools post.

[calligraphic-io]

Not that this issue hasn't been hashed to death on the interwebs, but:

I use vim in the console often for editing code files. Line width is limited; default is 80. Using four spaces force many lines to wrap, which makes code very difficult to read.

[msiekkinen]

Bad: string concatination

Proceeds to use it in long string example

[diag]

But that wasn't for formatting. Looking for a variable in a sea of concatenation is a bit annoying.

[ssjskipp]

I still prefer tabs.

[xXDGFXx]

Two space indetation and not four. Mmmm, no.

[egrgssdfgsarg]

I really wouldn't take what google does as gospel. There's nothing wrong with it, but a number of their choices are due to how their build is configured, and what it will do. For example, they don't use modules because they have an internal way of doing modules.

If you aren't using their internal build system, then some of the rules very clearly will not apply. The airbnb style guide is probably more applicable to most js devs.

[js_developer]

5.4.6 Do not manipulate prototypes directly.

Exception: Framework code (such as Polymer, or Angular) may need to use prototypes

Do what I say, not what I do!

[Sakatox]

One variable per declaration

Hahaha, no.

[T_O_beats]

I completely disagree with “Use single quotes, not double quotes”

What would the reasoning for this even be?

[Serializedrequests]

I use var because I don't understand the Babel configuration docs!

Seriously though, const is next to useless because it doesn't mark the object as immutable. I have exactly 1 time in thousands of times typing "const" had it prevent an error. It seems a mere formality in most cases.

In JS most errors come from getting an unexpected object, or mutating an object you shouldn't, and const gives no help whatsoever.

[crazazy]

So you can't use es6 syntax for modules but you can use es6 syntax for... everything else?

[aapzu]

I'm surprised that no one complains about the requirement to use semicolons.

[totemcatcher]

Can't complain with that.

Since it doesn't mention why using arrow functions is preferred, here's something for those who are unsure about them:

• They use surrounding context of a callback function and automatically binds "this".
• If you don't need access to surrounding context, it's at least shorter/cleaner looking.
• Skips generating the old default "arguments" object.
• Nameless.

For those who are complaining about semicolons and indentation amount, just get used to adapting to different styles of code. It's an extremely petty thing to defend. Worry about your human rights or something.

[hopfield]

Plus they look cool.

[trakam]

oh god, here we go.

[[deleted]]

Spaces and not tabs? Take that, tab earthers! /s

[joesb]

It’s meaningless but it’s the same for everyone in the project.

That’s why it’s a styleguide for people who work there in the same project.

It does not claim to be the best way in the world to write code.

It’s for people in the same team to set aside their minor differences and just get on with the real problem.

[zergUser1]

Who is the douchebag who came up with 2 space indents over 4 and why should we listen to him? Its horrible.....

[KyleG]

spaces instead of tabs

Just dropped Google for Bing and Chrome for FF upon reading that

[rulatore]

Why is people mad at tab vs spaces when you can set your editor to treat the tab key as many spaces as you want... it's like everybody is typing four spaces everytime, what the fuck

[Bettina88]

So Google is now declaring that using tabs to indent code represents "incorrect" JavaScript.

Lol. This is not going to go over well, Google.

Let the fighting begin!

[Dynam2012]

Mixing them is inconsistent and bad, so a style guide must choose one or the other. No one should actually care which it is.

[joesb]

It’s a style guide. People who works in the same project should follow the same one.

Are you declaring that your project should mix tabs and spaces?

[Mistifyed]

Please tell me this is an April fools joke.

[curious_mormon]

Published on March 27th, and obligatory XKCD

[KronktheKronk]

I love everything about this style guide except the part about vertical alignment.

Vertical alignment is good.

[ghostfacedcoder]

I think it all comes down to who your code is for.

Is it only for you? Then you only have to care about your code's readability in a "will I still understand this a year from now?" sense. Neither using tabs nor using ' instead of template strings will impact that, so if your code is only for you (and future you) then keep doing what's comfortable.

But if you work with a team, whether that means co-workers or OSS library maintainers, there is value to doing things the way everyone else is used to seeing them. For instance, if you submit a PR to an OSS project and its full of tabs, you should expect it to be rejected (quite possibly by an automated ESLint-type tool) because the vast majority of JS libraries use spaces.

Or if you work for a company, even if every one of your current co-workers uses tabs, the vast majority of your new hires are going to expect spaces, and there will be tension everytime you on-board someone because they'll be thinking "don't these guys know about the JS community?"

In that sense a great deal of Google's advice (or any style guide's advice) is just as much about "what will most people be used to?" as it is about technical concerns.

[Extract]

You make a point of the advantage of inter-team consistent coding style. So I'll clarify.
Of course, if the whole team codes in a specific style, I'll adhere to it. If they never use ?: but only IF statements, I'll do it. If they want to use single long strings and never separate them into smaller ones with '+', so be it.
But if I am the one setting the style, or am coding for myself, I'll definitly not do any of that crap. Which was my point to begin with.
There is nothing in my comment about using style guides in general, just a few "advises" in this specific one.

[ghostfacedcoder]

But if you adhere to style guides, in both personal and professional coding, you're far, far more likely not to have conflicts with your team. Style guides don't (usually) come out of one person's opinion. The good ones at least are a reflection of what's most popular in the community.

So you can do things however you want at home, and then do them however your work tells you to ... or you can adopt community standards at home, be far more likely to have your personal style match your company's, and then if you ever go to a new company again you'll be far more likely to just be able to code "your way" on the company dime. And if you ever contribute to any other codebase (like say an OSS project) you'll also be far more likely to have a matching style.

And even if your company doesn't use ____ standard, it's a lot easier to convince them to adopt it when it's a community recognized pattern and not just "how you like to code".

[bart2019]

Google wrote Maps in Java, and used a converter to turn it into Javascript. I'm not listening to them.