CoffeeScript for Groovy Developers

It always amazes me when Groovy developers say, "I don't like JavaScript." Both are dynamic languages that make metaprogramming seamless, but Groovy edges out JavaScript in the race for conciseness and syntactic sugar. That is, until CoffeeScript came onto the scene.

CoffeeScript is to JavaScript as Groovy is to Java -- both give their respective base languages a thoroughly modern makeover. CoffeeScript brings string interpolation (think GStrings), null-safe property access (person?.middleName and our beloved Elvis operator), and much more to JavaScript development. Perhaps CoffeeScript founder Jeremy Ashkenas says it best: "Underneath all of those embarrassing braces and semicolons, JavaScript has always had a gorgeous object model at its heart. CoffeeScript is an attempt to expose the good parts of JavaScript in a simple way."

CoffeeScript is more than an intellectual curiosity. It is the #1 most followed project on GitHub. It ships as a standard library in Rails 3.1. But most importantly, Brendan Eich openly acknowledges that CoffeeScript is influencing the future direction JavaScript (formally, ECMAScript "Harmony"). Much of what you see in CoffeeScript today will become native to JavaScript tomorrow.

Why don't you join me and see what the fuss is all about? You'll never look at JavaScript the same way again.