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JavaScript History & Information

JavaScript is considered to be one of the most powerful scripting languages in use today. It is often used for the development of client-side web development. Do you know that JavaScript is also sometimes called as ECMAScript because it strictly adheres to the ECMAScript standard? JavaScript is used to make web pages more interactive and dynamic. JavaScript is a light weight programming language and it is embedded directly into the HTML code. JavaScript, as the name suggests, was influenced by many languages, especially Java.

Been trying to teach myself some web design and programing language

JavaScript is one of the most well-known trademarks in the web development world; it is the trademark of Sun Microsystems. It was originally invented by Netscape and was kept under license for some time but now you are not required to get a license in order to use JavaScript. Most of the learners ask about what JavaScript can do for them. Well, let’s briefly review what JavaScript can do for us:

Leaning tower of nerd knowledge

  • HTML designers use JavaScript as one of the best programming tool that is very simple, syntax wise, and need not to have any previous strong programming skills because most of the HTML authors are not programmers. However, the syntax of JavaScript is so simple that most of the HTML authors easily play with it.
  • JavaScript can be used to make HTML pages more dynamic. All plain HTML files are static.
  • JavaScript has the ability to react to various events which is not possible through HTML. When a use clicks a button, an action event can be generated with the help of JavaScript
  • JavaScript can be embedded easily into an HTML document and JavaScript easily reads and can write HTML elements as well
  • If you want to detect the browser of the visitor, you can use JavaScript and can load the page according to the requirement of that browser.
  • Cookies can be created using JavaScript
  • You can add various other features like user validation, authentication etc by the use of JavaScript.

These were some the main features of JavaScript that were briefly described above; now let’s have a brief look at the history of JavaScript.
JavaScript was developed by Brendan Eich, who worked for Netscape and he named JavaScript initially as Mocha. After a while, Mocha was renamed as LiveScript and finally it was renamed to JavaScript as we know it today. Because Netscape added the Java Technology in its web browser; that is reason LiveScript name was changed to JavaScript. It was in the year 1995 when JavaScript was first deployed in the browser of Netscape; the Netscape Navigator version 2.0B3. Soon after its success, Microsoft also tried it but used a different name; Jscript in order to avoid any possible trademark issues later. The Jscript was first deployed in Internet Explorer 3.0 which was introduced in the year 1996. After its introduction, Jscript or JavaScript has undergone many changes and improvements and has become one of the most powerful scripting languages for the web.

Let’s now refresh some basic concepts of JavaScript, after that we will move towards some experimentation with JavaScript.

  • JavaScript is a scripting language that is mainly used in order to add interactivity to the HTML pages
  • Remember that scripting language is not like ordinary computer programming languages; scripting languages are light weight programming languages.
  • JavaScript is embedded directly in to the markup code or the HTML code.
  • One of the main advantages of using JavaScript is that it is an interpreted language in which scripts are directly executed without preliminary compilation.
  • You are not required to purchase a license in order to use JavaScript.

After brief revision, we can head towards some experimentation. Carefully go through the following steps that will guide you about how to make your first, very basic, JavaScript code;

  • The first thing you need to make sure is that you get some idea about markup languages like HTML/XHTML. Once you are done with them, you are ready for some Java Scripting.
  • Open any text editor like Notepad for writing HTML tags.
  • JavaScript code is embedded directly in the HTML file.
  • JavaScript code opens with <Script> and ends with </Script>
  • You have to define the script type inside the Script tag; <Script type=”text/JavaScript”>
  • Write down the following piece of code in order to display Hello World on the HTML page

<html>
<body>
<script type=”text/javascript”>
document.write(“Hello World”);
</script>
</body>
</html>

This piece of code, using the write function, will display Hello World¸ on the HTML Page. Document.write is a JavaScript command used for writing any output to the html page. This is one of the simplest examples that almost every new learner come across during the learning of JavaScript. For more information about JavaScript and learning of JavaScript, follow our further sections that will guide you in choosing better online learning resources for JavaScript.