Perhaps you've heard the term and know you need to understand it because JavaScript is used in nearly every website on the internet these days, but you are wondering what is and what is used for, and you need a very beginner-friendly introduction, so this is the right place to start. In this article, I'll explain what is JavaScript, and why we need it.
What is JavaScript?
JavaScript is a text-based, object-oriented programming language used both on the client-side and server-side to make webpages and apps more dynamic and interactive for visitors, like showing notifications or pop-up messages, responding to mouse clicks, creating animations, or validating data. JavaScript be part of the three fundamentals technologies of the web, with HTML, and CSS, where HTML give the structure, CSS give the style, and JavaScript gives web pages interactive elements.
What JavaScript is used for?
JavaScript, like I mentioned before, is mainly used for web-based applications and web browsers, but it is also used beyond the Web in software, servers, and embedded hardware controls. Here are some things you can do with JavaScript:
Adding interactive behavior to web pages
Creating web and mobile apps
Building web servers and developing server applications
Game development
You can do all this stuff with JavaScript, however, you need also other tools to reach these goals, like frameworks(Vue.js, Angular.js), libraries(React.js), and Back-End runtime environment(Node.js).
The advantages of using JavaScript
Interactivity: JavaScript websites are more interactive and appealing to users since the language creates richer and more attractive interfaces.
Speed: Websites will load and operate at a higher speed since JavaScript can be run immediately in the browser, thereby reducing demand on the server.
Ease: It's simple to implement and often takes only a basic level of knowledge to utilize.
Integration: JavaScript works well with most other programming languages, making it possible to integrate into a host of different applications.
Event-Based Programming: JavaScript is an event-based language. It means that a different code segment is executed when a certain event occurs. For example, a code segment may execute when the user clicks a button or moves a mouse over an object, etc.
Easy to Debug and Test: JavaScript code is interpreted line by line. The errors are indicated along with the line number. It is very easy to find an error in the code, correct it and test it again.
Where to study JavaScript
Many e-learning platforms can give you the chance to study JavaScript, but each one is different, so I'll make a list of the best place to start with the language.
Udacity: they offer a variety of free courses on JavaScript, from the DOM, to the Object-oriented paradigm and many others. However, Udacity offers also several paths, called Nanodegrees, about many fields, like programming, data science, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, etc. So you can study many programming languages and technologies, not only JavaScript.
Codecademy: it is a great platform, where you can study JavaScript for free, and also take part in their career paths, like Front-End Engineer path, Back-End Engineer path, Full-Stack Engineer path, etc. There are also many other technologies that you can learn through Codecademy, like Python, C++, C#, Java, React, Node.js, etc.
Udemy: this e-learning platform offers a lot of courses, some are free and many others are really cheap. Thanks to Udemy, you can learn a lot of things, not only JavaScript, but any programming language, frameworks, operating systems, and more. There are also courses about other fields, so you can start learning everything with them.
Coursera: Coursera is a great e-learning platform, where there are courses for free without the certification, but you can pay for it, and they are not expensive, but the advantage is that these courses are issued by University or companies, like IBM, Google, Oracle, etc. They can teach you a lot, about not only programming languages, but regarding all in the university and industry world.
Edx: this platform is the same as Coursera, however, they're more expensive, and there are courses as well as specializations issued by universities like MIT, Harvard, Yale, NYU, etc.
Conclusion
JavaScript is a powerful programming language, really popular, with a huge community. There are many resources to start studying it, not only e-learning platforms, but also books, or tutorials, or challenges code, it's up to you. You can also study with all of them, it's fine, but perseverance is the key. Keep learning every day, and you can learn a lot about JavaScript and many other technologies.