Rules / Guidelines

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Basic Guidelines and Rules

• Basic rules of where to put the code:
  • JavaScripts in the body section will be executed WHILE the page loads.
  • JavaScripts in the head section will be executed when CALLED. (thank you w3schools.com)
• put your javascript in a separate text file saved as a .js and reference it with a line in the header of your code (and be sure to call it from somewhere!):
  <script type="text/javascript" src="filename.js"> </script>
• case is significant - use lowercase except for vars or functions which can be named in camel case e.g. getElementById or with underscores e.g. calc_square_root(16);
• no spaces in variable or function names
• one statement per line and end each line with semicolon (for clarity)
• comment to clarify intent - use // at start of each comment line
• name functions and variables in a meaningful way
• don't use these reserved names for your variables or functions:

  abstract boolean break byte case catch char class const continue
  debugger default delete do double else enum export extends 
  false final finally float for function goto 
  if implements import in instanceof int interface long 
  native new null package private protected public return 
  short static super switch synchronized 
  this throw throws transient true try typeof var void while with

• Escape sequences - a backslash "\" causes the character after it to have special meaning:
  • \n is like a <br> in html, it creates a new line; \b backspaces one character
  • \\ is how you get a "backslash" in your string. If you want to print the text string \folder\otherfolder you would have to type
    string = "\\folder\\otherfolder" in the code
  • \' or \" means print the quote instead of ending the string. For example if you want to print the text
    She said "You're the greatest"!
    the code would be
    string = "She said \"You\'re the greatest\"!"
    without the escape character the string would end before the word "You're" because of the double quote just before "Y"

Terms | Operators | Language | Objects | Rules |