JavaScript (ECMAScript 5) Tutorial

Question

I hear that ECMAScript 5 is now getting supported by most of the latest browsers. Are there any good tutorials out there? I tried looking myself but I didn't find anything. Is the ES5 documentation the only thing out there? I mainly want to know what has been depreciated in the new standard. If I avoid these i can feel right at home when I move to ES5 and I wont miss anything depreciated.

Solution 1

The new (2011) edition of "Javascript: The Definitive Guide" covers ECMAScript 5 functions thoroughly, and shows how to implement ECMAScript 3 equivalents in many cases :-)

Solution 2

Referring to ECMAScript 5 compatibility table page, Firefox 4 - 6 and Chrome 13 - 14 are the most compatible browsers.

The Mozilla JavaScript Reference might be the closest. See its entry for ECMAScript5 support for details.

Update (2011-08-05)

It appears that ES5 is backward compatible with ES3 (1, 2). The only way to break the compatibility is to use "use strict" to enable a subset of ES5 deemed as less error prone.

Solution 3

The features that have been deprecated are the features that are disabled when the "use strict" mode is initiated (a rather poor way of doing it, IMO, since it requires them to come up with new terminology for the next version... but I digress).

I found Resig's article on this rather useful, although I haven't verified anything he says here: http://ejohn.org/blog/ecmascript-5-strict-mode-json-and-more/

Comments

[apokaliptis]

Thanks for the help. Sadly, I cant find a list of features that have been depreciated as of ES5 only what is new.