Jade

HTML made easy.

This week we were introduced to a node template engine called Jade. Jade essentially allows us to write HTML in a cleaner, faster, and more visually appealing way. Here is a example from the Jade website of how different it looks from the classic html:

You’ll probably notice recognize the HTML on your left from spending hours on end editing your MySpace page. But imagine how much easier it could be with the example on the right where you don’t have to type brackets, slashes, and closing tags. And thats not even mentioning embedded Javascript. We did a couple projects with embedded Javascript in HTML without Jade and I spend an hour looking for a missing equal sign. With Jade, the syntax is so much cleaner that it makes it much easier to spot my rookie mistakes. Here is an example of a simple if/else statement in Jade:

Isn’t it pretty?

The reason I like Jade so much because is because of its simplicity. I would say that the biggest thing I am struggling with so far is syntax. Especially in Javascript. I seem to know what I want to do most of the time, but connecting that with how to actually write the code properly is tough for me. I know that it will get easier with more practice because I’m WAY better at it than I was before, but I know this is where I need to focus my study time.