JavaScript Technology Tutorial

JavaScript is a high-level, prototype-based object-oriented programming language used to develop most of the Web. Almost all websites use JavaScript along with HTML and CSS all websites on the Web to create interactive web pages. It thus has played a critical role in developing the worldwide Web.

It was originally developed at Netscape in 1993 and has gone through various iterations since and now is part of the ECMAScript, making it open and cross-platform.

Need for JavaScript

Apart from being one of the most popular programming languages in the world and synonymous with developing websites and web apps, here are some reasons why it's important,

JavaScript is used in the development of both front-end and back-end applications. Therefore, any programmer or Web Developer must have a working knowledge of JS to create those applications.
Since it's a high-level programming language, there's no steep learning curve; anyone can learn the basics and get started! The syntax used in JavaScript is similar to the English language.
It's a cross-platform language, so it doesn't matter what browser the end-user uses; your apps and websites look and work the same using JavaScript.
It's extremely flexible and easy and over the years many developers have written over the core language and increased its functionality exponentially. This has greatly helped create various apps, games, and API over web browsers creating dynamic and interactive web pages.

Applications of JavaScript Technology

It's most widely used for creating most of the websites/web pages on the Internet. Along with CSS and HTML, they are used to create websites. HTML & CSS defines its structure and layout and JavaScript defines how it'll behave.
It is also widely used for creating various web applications which refers to apps running on your web browsers like Chrome or Firefox. Google Maps is the best example of a full-fledged web application.
Most popular frameworks used for developing modern-day apps, websites like AngularJS, React JS, and Node JS, are based on the JavaScript framework.
With applications like Node.js which are based on JavaScript runtime environment, JavaScript is also used widely in making server applications.
It is also used in creating apps for phones and watches and to create various interactive games on the Web, computers, and phones!

Example of JavaScript (Hello World!)

Code:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Embedding JavaScript</title>
</head>
<body>
<script>
var greet = "Hello World!";
document.write(greet); // Prints: Hello World!
</script>
</body>
</html>

Output:

Prerequisites

Although JavaScript is a simple-to-understand language and anyone can start learning JavaScript along with CSS and HTML to become a Web Developer, working knowledge of C is preferable as most of the syntax in JavaScript is adapted from C.

Target Audience

Anyone willing to make a career in Web development or Application development can learn JavaScript as most of the frameworks are based on the JavaScript framework.