Agree on code style and conventions for JavaScript

[novalis]

We did this for Java code in #24 and I think we should do the same for JavaScript.

I like the code conventions that Crockford gives: http://javascript.crockford.com/code.html

Also, there are two patterns in the code that I'd like to discuss changing:

• the entering/exiting {function name} console.log statements (which make the output very noisy)
• catching exceptions at such a high level (which makes it harder to figure out what line caused the exception)

[novalis]

Discussed on the call.

All agreed:

• We'll use the Crockford code style (but the other patterns, e.g., for class creation; we'll stick with the OpenLayers-style approach we're currently using)
• We'll remove the enter/exit console.log statements
• We'll start catching specific exceptions at the lowest level possible

--nicholasbs

[novalis]

I've begun documenting this and a few other code conventions which are already being used here: DevelopersGuide#Codestyle (thanks to Frank for writing up the additional notes).

--nicholasbs

[novalis]

(In [705]) Remove enter/exit function log statements (updates #206)

--nicholasbs

[novalis]

(In [707]) Remove console output (updates #206)

--nicholasbs

[novalis]

I believe we've decided that we were going to start making the style changes piecemeal to old code as we work with it, and start using the new style for new code. Correct me if I'm wrong here.

Do we plan on removing the higher level exceptions in one shot? That seems less risky than changing all of the style at once.

--rmarianski

[novalis]

Yes, that sounds right to me: New code should use the new conventions, and old code should be updated as it's worked on.

Re: removing the high-level catches, I'm +1 to doing it all at once. I don't think there's a lot of risk in doing that and it should be pretty quick.

Sound good?

--nicholasbs

[novalis]

(In [757]) Remove high-level try-catch blocks (and update associated code to new style conventions); add lots of missing semicolons; remove trailing commas; remove cruft (updates #206)

--nicholasbs

[novalis]

I've just gone through and made a number of updates. Specifically:

• I removed most of the high-level try-catch blocks that were making debugging harder
• I removed some of the other try-catch blocks that
• I left any blocks that appeared to be targeted at (and dealt with) a specific bug
• since in removing this code I needed to reformat the associated blocks, I figured I might as well apply our new agreed upon code style to them.
• I added a bunch of missing semicolons (and a trailing comma)
• I removed some general cruft

From my testing, I don't believe these changes reveal any new errors (e.g., exceptions that were previously being silently caught and discarded). If this turns out to be wrong, I think we should fix them on a case by case basis and, if we do need to silently discard exceptions, make sure to document why (there are already several cases of this in the code and I left all of them as-is).

I'm closing as fixed for now. Feel free to reopen if necessary.

--nicholasbs