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10.3 Developer Resources

MDN29 is an essential resource for web development in general, especially for JavaScript/ECMAScript and the various Web APIs. It contains resources for all levels, including for those unfamiliar with JavaScript. All developers should familiarize themselves with the resources available on MDN so that they understand what type of information is readily accessible for future reference.

An overview of TypeScript can be found in its Handbook. The language borrows concepts from a number of others, so many concepts may be familiar to you. TypeScript uses structural typing (duck typing). In Liza, we also choose to implement nominal typing using “branding” (src/types/misc.d.ts). A language specification is also available.

The Server (see Server) uses Node.js. Although it’s largely abstracted away, there may be times where you need to touch on it, in which case the Node.js documentation will be helpful. However, it is important to note the version of Node.js that Liza is currently using, as it may be woefully out of date and require looking at older versions of the documentation.

This manual is written using Texinfo, which is the documentation format of the GNU operating system. The format is structured and well-suited for software documentation with output in a variety of formats. Looking at the source code of this manual will be helpful—it provides the general structure and numerous macros that are specific to Liza.

Data are persisted using MongoDB. Database operations in Liza are abstracted away, but it’s helpful to understand how to query the database directly to understand how the system works and composes its data, and for the purposes of debugging.

For information on specific libraries used by Liza, see Libraries.


Footnotes

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Formerly the “Mozilla Developer Network”; see ”The Future of MDN: A Focus on Web Docs” for the history of the rename.


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