Month: October 2015

Intro to JavaScript

JavaScript (AKA ECMAScript) is by far the most amazeballs programming language for the web. The fact that you can work with it both server-side and client-side is incredible and should excite developers.

Fast things to know:

  • Netscape created JavaScript
  • Microsoft created JScript (a clone of JavaScript)
  • In 1996 in an effort to unify browsers the ECMAScript Language Specification was started and in 1997 the ECMAScript 1st  standard was created
  • Currently we are up to the 6th Edition
  • JavaScript (JS) is an object-oriented programming language designed for browser interaction
  • Has grown beyond the original purpose of a scripting language

The easiest way to play with JavaScript is by building a simple html file:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
 <head>
 <title>JavaScript</title>
 </head>
 <body>
 
Hi

 
 var hello = document.getElementById('hello').innerHTML='Hello World';
 
 </body>
</html>

The simple script above uses JavaScript to change “Hi” to “Hello World”.