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JavaScript

JavaScript is a powerful, dynamic, and versatile programming language that has revolutionized the web development industry. It was first introduced in 1995 and has since become one of the world's most widely used programming languages. Its value lies in its ability to create interactive and dynamic web pages, provide real-time updates, and enhance the user experience.

JavaScript is cross-platform, which means it can run on various operating systems, browsers, and devices. It has a vast library of libraries and frameworks that make it easier to develop and deploy applications quickly. Over the years, JavaScript has grown to become a critical tool for web development, and its popularity continues to increase with advancements in technology and the increasing demand for dynamic and interactive web applications.

JavaScript

What is JavaScript?

JavaScript is the language of the Web. It’s a language with wide ranging use-cases. From enabling small, dynamic features on a website to building web servers to building mobile applications and CLIs, JavaScript is a language that is used all over the place.

In the early days of the Web, sites and pages were quite static. The full-featured applications that are commonplace these days were a pipe dream at this stage. As the community of web developers grew and matured there became a desire to be able to do more. Developers wanted to be able to do dynamic and interactive things after the page loaded. The Netscape corporation (creators of the very popular, at the time, Netscape browser) set out to make that a reality. JavaScript was the result.

As part of the work, Netscape submitted JavaScript to Ecma International as a standard that all browsers should adhere to. There have been lots of ups and downs on this path to standardization across all browsers, but we’ve reached a stabilization point.

In 2015 the ECMAScript 6 standard was published. This was an ambitious bump in language features and functionality and it also set the path for more broad standards adoption and more regular language additions and updates. Today's JavaScript is very different from the JavaScript of even five years ago.

JavaScript is an extremely versatile and widely-used language. The language is leveraged in many powerful libraries, tools, and frameworks available to help developers build and maintain increasingly complex and performant web applications. Some popular JavaScript frameworks and libraries include React, Angular, Vue.js, Svelte, and NodeJS.

JavaScript

What is JavaScript used for?

On the client side, JavaScript creates interactive and dynamic web pages. It is executed directly in the user's web browser, allowing for user input validation, dynamic content updates, and interactive forms and animations. JavaScript can also create browser extensions and mobile and desktop apps.

On the server side, JavaScript can build robust and scalable web applications using technologies such as Node.js. Node.js is a runtime environment that allows JavaScript to be executed on the server-side, allowing developers to use the same language for client-side and server-side programming. This makes the development process more efficient and streamlined.

There is a large, vibrant community of open-source developers building and maintaining libraries that can be leveraged in our applications. This is a common pattern and a real accelerator to the pace at which we can build things with JavaScript. These libraries robustly solve common problems and allow us to focus more on solving business problems.

JavaScript is known for its ability to manipulate the Document Object Model (DOM) of a web page. The DOM is a tree-like structure that represents the structure of a web page, and JavaScript allows developers to access and modify the various elements of the page in real time, creating dynamic and interactive experiences for the user.

It’s also known for its event-driven programming model, which allows developers to specify code that should run in response to certain events, such as a button click or a form submission. This makes it easy to create responsive and interactive user interfaces and a pretty fantastic model for building performant applications on the web.

JavaScript does have some rough edges, given its history. It was developed rather quickly, and we’ve long since surpassed the original intention of the language. Though the language has matured and stabilized over the years, we typically layer on tools such as Typescript to provide us with a more robust, safe language to work with.

Overall, JavaScript is an essential tool for creating dynamic and interactive websites and applications and has become an increasingly important part of the web development landscape. Its versatility and wide range of use in various situations make it a must-have skill for any developer or agency that wants to work in web development or web-based software development.

JavaScript

Demonstration

Dynamic and interactive

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
    <head>
        <title>JavaScript Demo</title>
    </head>
    <body>
        <h1 id="header">Welcome to my JavaScript demo</h1>
        <button onclick="changeText()">Change Text</button>

        <script>
            function changeText() {
                var header = document.getElementById("header");
                header.innerHTML = "Text has been changed";
            }
        </script>
    </body>
</html>

In this example, we have a very basic HTML document that contains a button. When the button is clicked, the "changeText" function is called, which changes the text of the header using JavaScript. While an extremely simple example, this demonstrates how JavaScript can be used to manipulate the DOM in real-time, creating dynamic and interactive web pages.

Event-driven

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
    <head>
        <title>JavaScript Demo</title>
    </head>
    <body>
        <input type="text" id="input" onkeyup="showValue()">
        <p id="output"></p>

        <script>
            function showValue() {
                var input = document.getElementById("input");
                var output = document.getElementById("output");
                output.innerHTML = input.value;
            }
        </script>
    </body>
</html>

In this example, we have an HTML document that contains an input field and a paragraph. The "onkeyup" event is used to call the "showValue" function whenever a key is pressed in the input field. The function gets the value of the input field and displays it in the paragraph. This demonstrates how JavaScript can be used to create event-driven interactions.

Cross-platform

const http = require('http');
const server = http.createServer((req, res) => {
    res.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type': 'text/plain'});
    res.end('Hello World\n');
});

server.listen(3000, '127.0.0.1');
console.log('Server running at http://127.0.0.1:3000/');

In this example, we are using JavaScript on the server-side with the use of Node.js, it creates a simple HTTP server and listens on port 3000. This simple example shows how JavaScript can be used for both client-side and server-side programming, allowing for a more efficient and streamlined development process.

Libraries and Frameworks

const express = require('express')
const app = express()

app.get('/', (req, res) => res.send('Hello World!'))

app.listen(3000, () => console.log('Example app listening on port 3000!'))

In this example, we are using the Express.js library to create a simple web server. This code accomplishes the same as the previous example with fewer lines of less complicated code. LIbraries typically layer onto existing functionality to improve This demonstrates how JavaScript libraries and frameworks can be used to simplify and streamline the development process.

JavaScript

FAQs

  • Why should we use JS when it’s dynamically typed and prone to errors?
  • What is the difference between JavaScript and Java?
  • What can you do with JavaScript?
  • What are the basic data types in JavaScript?
  • What is the DOM in JavaScript?
  • What is an event in JavaScript?
  • What is a callback function in JavaScript?
  • What is AJAX in JavaScript?
  • What is a closure in JavaScript?
  • What is a Promise in JavaScript?
JavaScript

Terminology

Variable: A variable is a named storage location that holds a value, which can be a primitive value (such as a number or a string) or a more complex value (such as an object or an array).

Function: A function is a block of code that performs a specific task and can be called or invoked by other code in the program.

Array: An array is an ordered collection of values, which can be of any type. Each value is assigned a numerical index, starting from 0.

Object: An object is a collection of key-value pairs where the keys are strings, and the values can be of any type. Objects are often used to represent complex data structures.

Conditional statements: Conditional statements are used to make decisions in code based on a specific condition. The most common conditional statements in JavaScript are if statements, which execute a block of code if a certain condition is true.

Loops: Loops are used to repeat a block of code a certain number of times, or until a specific condition is met. The two most common types of loops in JavaScript are for loops and while loops.

Event: An event is an action or occurrence in the browser, such as a button click or a page load. JavaScript can be used to listen to and respond to these events in a specific way.

DOM: The Document Object Model (DOM) is a programming interface for HTML and XML documents. It represents the structure of a web page as a hierarchical tree of objects, which can be manipulated with JavaScript.

AJAX: AJAX stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, and is a technique for updating parts of a web page without requiring a full page reload. It involves using JavaScript to make asynchronous requests to a server and update the page with the response.

Callback: A callback is a function that is passed as an argument to another function, and is executed when a specific event occurs. Callbacks are often used in asynchronous programming, where the order of execution is not guaranteed.

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