specs

1-js/01-getting-started/1-intro/article.md

@@ -105,13 +105,15 @@ So recently a plethora of new languages appeared, which are *transpiled* (conver
 
 Modern tools make the transpilation very fast and transparent, actually allowing developers to code in another language and auto-converting it "under the hood".
 
+The most used are
 Examples of such languages:
 
 - [CoffeeScript](http://coffeescript.org/) is a "syntactic sugar" for JavaScript. It introduces shorter syntax, allowing us to write clearer and more precise code. Usually, Ruby devs like it.
 - [TypeScript](http://www.typescriptlang.org/) is concentrated on adding "strict data typing" to simplify the development and support of complex systems. It is developed by Microsoft.
-- [Dart](https://www.dartlang.org/) is a standalone language that has its own engine that runs in non-browser environments (like mobile apps). It was initially offered by Google as a replacement for JavaScript, but as of now, browsers require it to be transpiled to JavaScript just like the ones above.
+- [Flow](http://flow.org/) also adds data typing, but in a different way. Developed by Facebook.
+- [Dart](https://www.dartlang.org/) is a standalone language that has its own engine that runs in non-browser environments (like mobile apps), but also can be transpiled to JavaScript. Developed by Google.
 
-There are more. Of course, even if we use one of these languages, we should also know JavaScript to really understand what we're doing.
+There are more. Of course, even if we use one of transpiled languages, we should also know JavaScript to really understand what we're doing.
 
 ## Summary
 

1-js/01-getting-started/2-manuals-specifications/article.md

@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+
+# Manuals and specifications
+
+This book is a *tutorial*. It aims to help you gradually learn the language. But once you're familiar with the basics, you'll need other sources.
+
+
+## Specification
+
+**The ECMA-262 specification** contains the most in-depth, detailed and formalized information about JavaScript. It defines the language.
+
+But being that formalized, it's difficult to understand at first. So if you need the most trustworthy source of information about the language details, it's the right place. But it's not for everyday use.
+
+The latest draft is at <https://tc39.es/ecma262/>.
+
+To read about bleeding-edge features, that are not yet widely supported, see proposals at <https://github.com/tc39/proposals>.
+
+
+Also, if you're in developing for the browser, then there are other specs covered in the [second part](info:browser-environment) of the tutorial.
+
+## Manuals
+
+- **MDN (Mozilla) JavaScript Reference** is a manual with examples and other information. It's great to get in-depth information about individual language functions, methods etc.
+
+    One can find it at <https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference>.
+
+    Although, it's often best to use an internet search instead. Just use "MDN [term]" in the query, e.g. <https://google.com/search?q=MDN+parseInt> to search for `parseInt` function.
+
+
+- **MSDN** – Microsoft manual with a lot of information, including JavaScript (often referrerd to as JScript). If one needs something specific to Internet Explorer, better go there: <http://msdn.microsoft.com/>.
+
+    Also, we can use an internet search with phrases such as "RegExp MSDN" or "RegExp MSDN jscript".
+
+## Feature support
+
+JavaScript is a developing language, new features get added regularly.
+
+To see their support among browser-based and other engines, see:
+
+- <http://caniuse.com> - per-feature tables of support, e.g. to see which engines support modern cryptography functions: <http://caniuse.com/#feat=cryptography>.
+- <https://kangax.github.io/compat-table> - a table with language features and engines that support those or don't support.
+
+All these resources are useful in real-life development, as they contain valuable information about language details, their support etc.
+
+Please remember them (or this page) for the cases when you need in-depth information about a particular feature.