You may have heard the controversy about CoffeeScript becoming the default client-side language in Rails 3.1. We'll tackle CoffeeScript (and JavaScript) from a Rubyist's perspective, comparing object models, closures, syntax and more. Learning about CoffeeScript can help highlight the Ruby-ish parts of JavaScript.
Jeremy Ashkenas is part of the Interactive News team at the New York Times, as well as the lead developer of DocumentCloud, helping news organizations analyze and publish the primary source documents behind the news. He works on CoffeeScript, Backbone.js, Underscore.js, Docco, Jammit, and Ruby-Processing, among other opensource projects