What is JavaScript? Can the Internet exist without JavaScript?

JavaScript has become something almost obvious, when everyone uses it. When you use Facebook, you use JavaScript. When you write a tweet you use JavaScript. Indeed, when you view the content on TipsMake.com, you are also using JavaScript. This is just one of the few websites that use JavaScript.

But not everyone knows what JavaScript is and how it works. The long and fascinating development history of JavaScript as well as what we can do with JavaScript is still unknown. Let's TipsMake.com look back on the process of birth and development of JavaScript, its power and great features offline.

What is JavaScript?

JavaScript is a programming language used to create interactive websites. It is integrated and embedded in HTML. JavaScript allows to control the behavior of web pages better than when there is only HTML alone. JavaScript combines into HTML, runs on Windows, Macintosh and other Netscape support systems.

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History of formation and development of JavaScript

At first, the Web was not as interesting as it is now.

Back in that period, only HTML, web pages had nothing but words, links and images. Without mobility, not interesting, everything is completely static. The Internet must "evolve". And so, in 1995, at Netscape's office, JavaScript was born.

Back then, the competition between Netscape's Navigator and Microsoft's Internet Explorer was fierce. Both companies saw the great potential of the Internet and tried to create a web browser, making it a mainstream trend.

Netscape wants to create a programming language that is easy to understand for beginners, and allows developers to have more control over what happens in the browser window.

JavaScript became a programming language

Developed for 10 days by Brendan Eich (although very briefly, but he later became the leader of Mozilla), it allows developers to write code in many different ways (functional direction, direction). commands and object-oriented) in a language that is similar to other popular languages ​​today, like Java, C ++ or C.

Although there is a similar name, it must be emphasized that JavaScript has nothing to do with the Java programming language developed by Sun Microsystems. Indeed, it was originally called LiveScript (Mocha's internal name), before being renamed to take advantage of Java's success and popularity.

It should be noted that JavaScript is not the first web programming language. A web browser formerly known as ViolaWWW, contains a rudimentary scripting language and a precursor to CSS. However, it never catches up and its scripting language never really becomes a standard.

A year after JavaScript was released, Microsoft moved it to Internet Explorer. In the following years, JavaScript became an essential part of web construction and it was found on most websites, supported by most web browsers.

JavaScript is also more successful as a language for developing websites, applications and phones. We will talk about this later, first of all, consider one of the most important JavaScript Web projects is jQuery.

jQuery

JavaScript is built with the purpose of not making it difficult for amateur programmers. But even so, it still comes with certain challenges for professional programmers.

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Perhaps the biggest problem is the multi-platform nature of the web. There are countless browsers used such as Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari, . Each translates JavaScript in different ways and has different levels of support for certain features. of programming language.

This means that developers have to write much more complex code just to make sure their site works on all versions of all popular browsers.

That's why jQuery was born.

Introduced in 2006 by John Resig, jQuery has fundamentally changed the way people write JavaScript code by standardizing and simplifying interaction and dynamic effects on the browser. For the first time, developers can write code once and there is a sure way that it will work on all browsers.

In particular, jQuery also simplifies JavaScript code writing by replacing the inconvenient, lengthy and original aspects of JavaScript with something more refined and elegant.

Node.js

JavaScript can grow outside of web browsers, the main proof is Node.js.

Created in 2009, Node.js is a free, open-source, multi-platform toolkit for creating high-performance, server-related applications, such as applications and machines. web host. In the following years, it was accepted by thousands of programmers and companies, including Groupon, LinkedIn and PayPal.

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What makes Node.js so special is its speed and the large developer community, who make code and modules.

Behind Node.js is the Google V8 engine, which is also the power of the Google Chrome browser. This is one of the factors that motivated the success of Node.js, as it allows JavaScript code translation at a blazing speed.

There are also thousands of Node.js modules created from the developer community, helping to expand the functionality of Node.js. These module packages are distributed by NPM or Node Package Manager. This is a free, command-line interface that is perfectly combined with the Node.js runtime, allowing you to integrate third-party JavaScript libraries into your code.

Node.js can also be used with Tessel Internet of Things projects, an Arduino-like board, running on JavaScript.

Application development for mobile phones

Mobile apps are a lucrative market. Just look at Nick D'Aloisio, who created the Summly app and was bought by Yahoo for $ 30 million when he was only 17 years old. Or like Rovio, with the game Angry Birds created a multi-million dollar brand, .

If you have a great idea about mobile apps, be assured that it can be created using JavaScript.

Android, iOS, Blackberry, Windows Phone all support to build the original application with JavaScript, which can be distributed on official application stores of each operating system, just like anything built with Java for Android or Swift for iOS.

Mobile applications written in JavaScript are generally easier to develop and can beat native apps thanks to performance indicators.

But often, in the JavaScript world, there are third-party alternatives that make writing mobile applications much quicker and easier. These include PhoneGap, Titanium, Sencha, Ionic, all of which allow one-time applications to be written and make sure it works on many different mobile platforms.

CoffeeScript

CoffeeScript simplifies the process of writing JavaScript code by allowing you to write a simpler "method" for language, then, compile or convert to standard JavaScript.

There are several languages ​​that can be compiled into JavaScript, but most notably Coffee Script.

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The most attractive feature of Coffee Script is that it allows you to write JavaScript code, while avoiding the raw parts of the language. Although JavaScript is widely available in the world, it still suffers from criticism from its various properties, which may be the result of JavaScript being designed only for 10 days. .

CoffeeScript accomplishes this with a syntax very similar to Python and Ruby (the two languages ​​are famous for their readability and ease of use). The CoffeeScript compiler also enforces pretty good code standards, making your code more readable for other developers.

For these reasons, CoffeeScript has become more popular in recent years, used by both Dropbox and code sharing platform - Github.

CoffeeScript is not the only language that exists to complete the rough lines of JavaScript, if you need to find a similar tool, you can consider more about Typescript of Microsoft and Haxe.

Conclude:

JavaScript is really big and plays an important role for the Internet.

When we talk about JavaScript, it's not just about programming language, but JavaScript is also one of the divine trio of the Internet. Those are projects, libraries, programs created around JavaScript as well as the successes they receive.

Honestly, it's hard to imagine what the Internet would be without JavaScript.

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