In this blog, we are going to understand why is really JavaScript the ‘Talk of the town’ these days, what will be an outcome of learning it? And what will be the most perfect way to proceed if you are a Beginner!!. Make sure you read it till the end, cause I’ve got some bonus tips for you guys to literally rock with JavaScript as quick as possible!!
What is a JavaScript?
JavaScript was initially created to “make web pages alive”.
The programs in this language are called scripts. They can be written right in a web page’s HTML and executed automatically as the page loads.
Scripts are provided and executed as plain text. They don’t need special preparation or compilation to run.
In this aspect, JavaScript is very different from another language called Java.
Today, JavaScript can execute not only in the browser, but also on the server, or actually on any device that has a special program called the JavaScript engine.
The browser has an embedded engine sometimes called a “JavaScript virtual machine”.
Different engines have different “codenames”. For example:
- V8 – in Chrome and Opera.
- SpiderMonkey – in Firefox.
- …There are other codenames like “Trident” and “Chakra” for different versions of IE, “ChakraCore” for Microsoft Edge, “Nitro” and “SquirrelFish” for Safari, etc.
How does a JavaScript work?
JavaScript is what is called a Client-side Scripting Language. That means that it is a computer programming language that runs inside an Internet browser (a browser is also known as a Web client because it connects to a Web server to download pages).
The way JavaScript works is interesting. Inside a normal Web page you place some JavaScript code (See How Web Pages Work for details on Web pages). When the browser loads the page, the browser has a built-in interpreter that reads the JavaScript code it finds in the page and runs it.
WebWebge designers use JavaScript in many different ways. One of the most common is to do field validation in a form. Many Web sites gather information from users in online forms, and JavaScript can help validate entries. For example, the programmer might validate that a person’s age entered into a form falls between 1 and 120.
Another way that web page designers use JavaScript is to create calculators. Here are several examples:
- RPN calculator
- MegaConverter – a big collection of calculators
- Personal Finance calculators
What can a JavaScript Do?
- JavaScript gives HTML designers a programming tool – HTML authors are normally not programmers, but JavaScript is a scripting language with a very simple syntax! Almost anyone can put small “snippets” of code into their HTML pages
- JavaScript can put dynamic text into an HTML page – A JavaScript statement like this: document.write(“<h1>” + name + “</h1>”) can write a variable text into an HTML page
- JavaScript can react to events – A JavaScript can be set to execute when something happens, like when a page has finished loading or when a user clicks on an HTML element
- JavaScript can read and write HTML elements – A JavaScript can read and change the content of an HTML element
- JavaScript can be used to validate data – A JavaScript can be used to validate form data before it is submitted to a server. This saves the server from extra processing
- JavaScript can be used to detect the visitor’s browser – A JavaScript can be used to detect the visitor’s browser, and – depending on the browser – load another page specifically designed for that browser
- JavaScript can be used to create cookies – A JavaScript can be used to store and retrieve information on the visitor’s computer.
What makes JavaScript unique?
There are at least three great things about JavaScript:
- Full integration with HTML/CSS.
- Simple things are done simply.
- Support by all major browsers and enabled by default.
Javascript is the only browser technology that combines these three things.
That’s what makes JavaScript unique. That’s why it’s the most widespread tool for creating browser interfaces.
While planning to learn a new technology, it’s beneficial to check its perspectives. So let’s move on to the modern trends affecting it, including new languages and browser abilities.
Languages “over” JavaScript
The syntax of JavaScript does not suit everyone’s needs. Different people want different features.
That’s to be expected, because projects and requirements are different for everyone.
So recently a plethora of new languages appeared, which are transpiled(converted) to JavaScript before they run in the browser.
Modern tools make the transpilation very fast and transparent, actually allowing developers to code in another language and auto-converting it “under the hood”.
Examples of such languages:
- CoffeeScript is a “syntactic sugar” for JavaScript. It introduces shorter syntax, allowing us to write clearer and more precise code. Usually, Ruby devs like it.
- TypeScript is concentrated on adding “strict data typing” to simplify the development and support of complex systems. It is developed by Microsoft.
- Dart is a standalone language that has its own engine that runs in non-browser environments (like mobile apps). It was initially offered by Google as a replacement for JavaScript, but as of now, browsers require it to be transpiled to JavaScript just like the ones above.
There are more. Of course, even if we use one of these languages, we should also know JavaScript to really understand what we’re doing.
Summary
- JavaScript was initially created as a browser-only language, but is now used in many other environments as well.
- Today, JavaScript has a unique position as the most widely-adopted browser language with full integration with HTML/CSS.
- There are many languages that get “transpiled” to JavaScript and provide certain features. It is recommended to take a look at them, at least briefly, after mastering JavaScript.
- As programming languages go, JavaScript is average difficulty. It is not especially hard to learn how to use it if you already understand programming, but if you are new to programming it is certainly not an easy language to start with.
A Code to Explore 