What the heck is JavaScript ?
JavaScript is a scripting language designed primarily for adding interactivity to Web pages and creating Web applications.
Its almost everywhere in your web browsing experience, their are some example of things you are use to with JavaScript :
- –Your mouse pointer touch a button of a page and the button changes its color .
- –filling out a form, after giving a username it says “it is already taken try another”.
- –a sign displays ‘a new message has been arrived’ at top of your facebook page , you even not refreshed that page.
like this many many many example can be there , and those are done by using JavaScript.
Not only in client side operations but JavaScript is developed as a server side programing language also soon after the releasing JavaScript for browsers. Node.js is one recent notable example of server-side JavaScript being used in real-world applications.
How old are you, JS ?
In 1995 Netscape (a dominant web browser in that time) developed this new language (by Brendan Eich) Battling with Microsoft over the Internet. The name “JavaScript” hints at the originally intended role for the language : Sun’s Java was to provide the large-scale building blocks for web applications (hey dude it is history almost … ewwweeee ), while JavaScript was to be the needle, connecting the blocks.
Oh man ! you are standardized ! aha !!
In November 1996, Netscape had submitted JavaScript to Ecma International for consideration as an industry standard, and subsequent work resulted in the standardized version named ECMAScript. ECMA is not an official standardization institute, but an association of companies that collaborate with other official institutes like the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). For Web developers, the most important standard is ECMAScript, the standardization of JavaScript.
Is Java your Brother ?
The very basic learner or the people who just heard the name , can be confused this language with Java. JavaScript is different from the Java language (developed in the 1990s at Sun Microsystems). However, the two languages can inter-operate well.
Because JavaScript was suppose to support java, it is developed with the base on the syntax of java, though it is quite different from java.
Often people think if they turnoff java in their browser for security reason it will effect their browsing style as most of the websites are built on JavaScript. I should clarify to them with two points,
1. Java and JavaScript are completely different.
2. Turning off Java will not turn off JavaScript.
I will not say JavaScript can not harm at all, but it is far different from the security-issue by Java.
A millionaire playboy !!
There are so many milestone has been covered by JavaScript in its life till now.
- 1997—Dynamic HTML.
- 1999—XMLHttpRequest.
- 2001—JSON.
- 2004—Dojo Toolkit.
- 2005—Ajax.
- 2005—Apache CouchDB.
- 2006—jQuery
- 2007—WebKit.
- 2008—V8
- 2009—Node.js
Stacking into WEB ? Nooooo !!
There are so many projects are implementing on JavaScript which are not so called web based, like
Mobile apps:
PhoneGap is a project that allows you to write
mobile apps. Those apps will run on seven platforms: iOS (iPhone,
iPod touch), Android, Blackberry, webOS, Windows Phone, Symbian, and
Bada.
Desktop apps:
- WebTelephony: Answer and place phone calls.
- Camera API: Access a built-in camera for recording photos and live video.
- WiFi Information API: Detect available WiFi networks, find out their sig-nal strength, the name of the currently connected network, etc.
- Contacts API: Read and modify a device’s native address book.
Also
- 2009: Open webOS.
- 2009: Google’s Chrome/Chromium OS could be called a “browser operating system.”
- 2011: Microsoft’s Windows 8makes JavaScript a first-class language. It is using this platform to develop its metro applications .
Some Popular Framework in JavaScript
- jQuery
- Cappuccino
- Backbone.Js
- Sammy.Js
- AngularJs
- Ext JS
- Dojo
- MooTools
- MochiKit
- Prototype
- The M Project
- EmbedJS
- MobilizeJS
What ? you want me to finish now ? ok..
being a super duper popular language, JavaScript is increasing its popularity day by day. Though there are so many scripting languages available in the web development platform, but , JavaScript is one in its way, because of its humble appearance and inspiring attitude
