Tutorials: Functions in JavaScript

**kirupa** · May 5th, 2012, 07:01 PM

Hi everyone,
This is the happening place to discuss all things related to the Functions in JavaScript tutorial. If you want to be cool, you know you want to read it.

Cheers,
Kirupa

**TheCanadian** · May 5th, 2012, 08:20 PM

The equation at the start is wrong. The text description is correct though.

**tbo** · May 6th, 2012, 11:08 AM

In general, how does the speed of javascript compare to actionscript? loops, functions, rendering?

**kirupa** · May 6th, 2012, 03:21 PM

Originally Posted by TheCanadian

The equation at the start is wrong. The text description is correct though.

Thanks for pointing that out. That was such an embarrassing mistake to make

Originally Posted by tbo

In general, how does the speed of javascript compare to actionscript? loops, functions, rendering?

I really don't know, but I would guess comparable. JS performance in all of the recent crops of browsers has gotten much better than what it was in the past, but that isn't saying much. JS performance in the past was abysmal and AS was significantly faster.

**ironikart** · May 6th, 2012, 07:26 PM

Originally Posted by tbo

In general, how does the speed of javascript compare to actionscript? loops, functions, rendering?

AS is compiled, JS is not - AS should always be 'faster'. If you were looking to reproduce something you previously developed in flash you trade off some speed to remove reliance on a run time environment (plugin) and gain the benefits of interacting directly with the browsers dom.

The speed of javascript relies on the browser (in part). The current crop of Mozilla, Opera, Chrome have all benchmarked quite high, I wish I had a link handy to show for some numbers but there are significant improvements over older generation browsers. The rest of the speed is up to the users device hardware.

**kadaj** · May 7th, 2012, 12:10 AM

Google's V8 has crankshaft, which compiles JavaScript into native machine code before execution.

**Krilnon** · May 7th, 2012, 12:31 AM

Originally Posted by kadaj

Google's V8 has crankshaft, which compiles JavaScript into native machine code before execution.

Basically all modern/competitive JavaScript engines (JavaScriptCore, SpiderMonkey, Chakra, V8) compile to native machine code before execution.

**ironikart** · May 7th, 2012, 06:41 PM

Originally Posted by kadaj

Google's V8 has crankshaft, which compiles JavaScript into native machine code before execution.

... which has to be done on the fly.

Don't get me wrong I'm not a flash fanboy, I just think it's unfair to compare performance between the 2. Apples and Oranges...

**TheCanadian** · May 8th, 2012, 10:19 PM

Originally Posted by ironikart

... which has to be done on the fly.

Don't get me wrong I'm not a flash fanboy, I just think it's unfair to compare performance between the 2. Apples and Oranges...

I don't think comparing the speed of two quite similar languages that fill a similar niche is like apples and oranges at all. AS (or rather ABC) is compiled to machine code on the fly too. I also seem to remember sen saying that JS is faster.