Latest News from Douglas Crockford

Douglas Crockford on JavaScript Security: Durable Objects

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 22:15:00 EDT

Cooperating applications, such as mashups, must be able to exchange objects with robust interfaces. An object must be able to encapsulate its state such that the state can be modified only as permitted by its own methods. JavaScript?s objects are soft and currently the language does not include any means to harden them, so an attacker can easily access the fields directly and replace the methods with his own.

Yahoo!'s Crockford: Browser Sniffing Is "A Bad Practice Inspired by Even Worse Practice

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 11:15:00 EDT

Browser sniffing is a bad practice inspired by even worse practice. In browser sniffing, a program attempts to determine what sort of browser it is dealing with so that it can act accordingly. Sniffing can be done on the server, or by scripts in the browser.

Does XML Have a Future on the Web?

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 08:00:00 EST

A more interesting question is 'Is XML on the web trending up or trending down?' Clearly, it is trending down. For data transfer applications, XML is losing ground to JSON because JSON is simply a better data transfer format. And XHTML has failed to displace HTML in the marketplace. The benefit of clientside validation has proven to not be a benefit. I think you can argue, and in fact I did argue, that because of W3C's adventures with XML, the web itself may not have a future. The browser has a lot of problems, the worst of which are the security problems that came with Netscape Navigator 2. That was 12 years ago, and there has been no progress since that time in fixing the fundamental problems. There have been lots of patches on top of patches. Nothing more.

JSLint To Be a Better JavaScript Programmer

Sat, 02 Jun 2007 17:45:00 EDT

I wrote JSLint to help me to be a better JavaScript programmer. The language is mostly good, but it has lots of kinks and traps. JSLint helps me to stay clear of the bad stuff, which tends to make my programs more robust.

Kaleidescape - Give It a Better Image

Sat, 02 Jun 2007 17:30:00 EDT

DRM is sometimes called an enabling technology, in that it is supposed to enable new business models. But it is really a disabling technology. As DRM fails, there have been suggestions that the name be changed to something that includes the word enabling; give it a better image; something more right than rights.

JSON: The Data Transport Format of the Stars

Mon, 05 Jun 2006 09:00:00 EDT

JSON is a universal data format. It provides an uncommonly effective bridge for moving data between systems and between languages.