The JavaScript that makes Basecamp tick with Javan Makhmali

By most measurements, Basecamp is a traditional web application that serves plain old HTML pages. And yet, it performs with the snappiness of a modern, single-page (JavaScript-based) application. In this talk, we’ll explore Basecamp's best-of-both-worlds architecture focusing on the JavaScript that glues it together.

Topics will include:

• Stacker, Basecamp's pushState & ajax library

• Effective jQuery patterns

• Using Backbone.js for isolated components

• Live page updates to keep users in sync

• Maximizing the hit ratio of cached HTML (with JavaScript)

• Compilation and minification with the Asset Pipeline

• Code organization lessons from an active, evolving codebase

Bio for Javan Makhmali

Javan is a programmer at Basecamp (formerly 37signals) where he helps craft clear, thoughtful interfaces for their customers with clarity-focused code (for his coworkers). He’s been tinkering with the web for 10+ years and shied away from JavaScript for much of that time until CoffeeScript came and washed away its more off-putting aspects. Now he’s hooked.

Javan is an Ann Arbor native and proud graduate of WCC.