[btipling]

I'd say I like how the thing does what it does, and I even like the overall simplicity of each of the functions which seem easily testable. I just don't like the JavaScript very much.

> var node = arguments;

> node.i = results.push(undefined) - 1;

...

Adding properties to an arguments object, assigning the arguments object (which is not an Array, only array-like) to a variable, pushing undefined onto an array and subtracting by 1 to get the latest index.

This isn't clever, it's silly.

Simple is better than complicated. They're passing a special array-like object all over the place, note:

> slice.call(node, 1),

They do this because slice isn't on arguments. They are using an arguments outside of the function's scope.

The var statement in a while loop gives me the impression this person doesn't know how scope works in JavaScript.

[wizard_2]

Mike Bostock is the author of at least three javascript visualization libraries that are in heavy use today. It's safe to say he's got a firm understanding of javascript. While including a var in side a loop doesn't sope the variables to the loop, it is convenient. You'll notice he's careful to assign to all of the variables with each iteration and doesn't use them outside the loop.

The "connivence" taken with some of the other parts of the code (particularly the complicated one liners) I'll raise an eyebrow over, but they show a deep understanding of javascript. However I'm not fond of conciseness over simplicity.

[ufo]

> The var statement in a while loop gives me the impression this person doesn't know how scope works in JavaScript.

I'm not the author of queue.js but I actually declaring my Javascript variables as close to their use point as possible because JSHint warnings let me pretend that JS had real block scope all along. You would be amazed how often it catches "variable used out of scope" errors that would not be caught if the declarations had been hoisted to the top of the function.

[xal]

It's also not a very good idea for performance. V8 optimizer will bail as soon as you do anything to arguments other then using an indexed access.