[jrmoran]

I might be missing something, since I just started learning it. But instead of drawing a circle like this

    sampleSVG.append("svg:circle")
        .style("stroke", "gray")
        .style("fill", "white")
        .attr("r", 40)
        .attr("cx", 50)
        .attr("cy", 50)
        .attr("width", 100)
        .attr("height", 100);

I'd prefer to express it like this

    sampleSVG.append("svg:circle")
        .style({
            "stroke": "gray",
            "fill": "white"})
        .attr({
            "r": 40,
            "cx": 50,
            "cy": 50,
            "width": 100,
            "height": 100});

That way, I can just pass object literals as arguments to functions such as attr.

[oscilloscope]

Checkout this branch of d3:

https://github.com/mbostock/d3/commits/map https://github.com/mbostock/d3/pull/179

We're working on this syntax for: style, classed, property, on, attr, attrTween, style, styleTween. It's a more concise syntax, especially when the attrs are functions. An example from the tutorial:

  d3.select(this).selectAll("rect")    
        .data(function(d){return d;})       
        .enter().append("svg:rect")
        .attr("fill", "aliceblue")
        .attr("stroke", "steelblue")
        .attr("stroke-width", "1px")
        .attr("width", function(d, i){return (histoW/dataset[0].length)+"px"})
        .attr("height", function(d, i){return (d/dataMax[rectIdx]*histoH)+"px"})
        .attr("x", function(d, i){return i*(histoW/dataset[0].length)+"px"})

Becomes:

    d3.select(this).selectAll("rect")    
        .data(function(d){return d;})       
        .enter().append("svg:rect")
        .attr(function(d,i ) {
          return {
            "fill": "aliceblue",
            "stroke": "steelblue",
            "stroke-width": "1px",
            "width": (histoW/dataset[0].length)+"px",
            "height": (d/dataMax[rectIdx]*histoH)+"px",
            "x": i*(histoW/dataset[0].length)+"px"
          };
        });

Three anonymous functions become a single function which returns an object.