Following my article A String is not an Error, I want to bring attention to an issue that similarly applies to JavaScript in general, but has special relevance in the Node.JS environment.The problem boils down to the usage of {} as a data-structure where the keys are supplied by untrusted user input, and the mechanisms that are normally used to assert whether a key exists.Consider the example of a simple blog created with Express. We decide to store blog posts in memory in a {}, indexed by the blog post slug. For example, this blog post would be posts['an-object-is-not-a-hash'].We start writin...

There, I said it, I don’t like it. And I don’t know why you do either.I assume you like it anyway, everyone else I talk to seems to. My heart sank over and over again whilst I was at the recent RailsConf and saw respected rubyist after respected rubyist using the new Ruby 1.9 hash syntax in their presentations.I just don’t get it.But I’m not one to just moan. I plan to justify my feelings. Then maybe you can tell me why you do like it?My friend the hash rocketI like the hash rocket (not least because it’s a rocket) and I know it’s not going away. Howev...