Bringing The Internet To Life With JavaScript

What is JavaScript?

JavaScript is arguably one of the most important programming languages these days. You can hardly have a conversation about software development, as a beginner or professional, without JavaScript The rise of the web has taken JavaScript places it was never conceived to be.

To answer this question, let's start with a direct exerpt from our beloved Wikipedia:

JavaScript (/ˈdʒɑːvəˌskrɪpt/[6]), often abbreviated as JS, is a high-level, interpreted programming language. It is a language which is also characterized as dynamic, weakly typed, prototype-based and multi-paradigm.

Let's break down the technical jargon. Javascript (JS) is:

• high-level: programming language which isn't written in 1s and 0s, but rather in a manner similar to human language. The instructions written in a high-level language is generally not hardware specific, and can be run across many kinds of machines.
• interpreted: JS can be executed 'on-the-fly' with the help of an interpreter. This means that new intructions can be added, and its results seen, immediately, without having to recompile your program.
• dynamic: you can add new instructions, adjust objects and definitions, change type classifications of variables (e.g. change content of a variable from integer to string) at run-time instead of having to recompile the program.
• weakly typed: JS does not impose strict rules about variable types on you. You are able to store and change between content of different types in the same variable, and even 'coerce' the content of a variable to change its type depending on how you use some operations on it.
• prototype-based: a style of object-oriented programming where new objects are created by 'cloning' existing objects and then adding to or changing properties of the new object. In this way, the new object inherits much of its qualities from an existing object. This differs subtly from class-based object orientedness, which features class definitions inheriting from other class definitions, instead of actual objects.
• multi-paradigm: JS allows one to create programs in a variety of different 'styles' of programming. For example, you can write a complex program using mulitple interacting objects (object-oriented); or, a script of simple commands run in sequence (imperative); or, process data using mathematical expressions (logical); or any combination of the above and a host of other styles.

With this understanding of what JavaScript is, we can move on to learning about its hitory and how, frankly, it has become a really important part of our digital life.

Life of JavaScript

• example of what it used to look like
• example of what it is capable now
  • http://strml.net/

Why JavaScript is important

Quirks of JavaScript

• "Wat" by Gary Bernhardt: A funny compilation of JavaScript's foibles that make you go, "Wat?!"