What is JavaScript?

javascript is a programming language that allows web developers to make websites more interactive and dynamic. It is used by tech giants such as Google, Facebook, YouTube and Amazon to give static pages more functionality and make them come to life with 2D and 3D graphics, animations and real-time content updates. It is unique in that it can be inserted into a website as text and run right inside the browser (client-side) without communicating with a server, unlike other computer languages, which are either compiled or interpreted and must communicate with a server.

HTML and CSS are the backbone of web design, but javascript is the magic third element that brings your project to life. Without it, you would be limited to static pages. It enables you to do things that simply wouldn’t be possible in just HTML or CSS alone, like making a page responsive to user input through touch screen presses, cursor movements, scrolls and mouse clicks and storing that information on the page for later use.

A unique feature of javascript is that it is capable of traveling through the HTML family tree, known as the DOM, and changing, adding or deleting elements on the fly. The only limit is that the elements have to have been read by the browser interpreter in order for javascript to access them and it must be done before any other scripts in the page are interpreted. Having a strong understanding of how this works is essential for any developer using this language.

Another interesting aspect of javascript is that it uses the object-oriented programming paradigm to allow for looser restrictions around variable declarations, allowing a more intuitive and less restrictive approach to development. This allows for a more rapid and agile development process. This, along with its support for multiple memory models and optimization techniques, is what makes javascript so popular.

There are many different frameworks and libraries that can be plugged into javascript to simplify the development process. These tools can save a lot of time, money and effort for the development team. They also make it easier to debug and make changes to the code as needed.

JavaScript is a relatively lightweight language, meaning that it doesn’t put much strain on the CPU resources. This is partly due to the fact that it can be compiled and run in native machine code (not interpreted), and because of its simple syntax. It is also capable of being obfuscated and packed in order to protect against reverse engineering.

However, a downside of JavaScript is that it is open source and therefore readily available for others to read and understand. This means that the code can be reverse-engineered, even when it is obfuscated or compiled, so it’s important to consider security in any application you write using this language. This can be mitigated by obfuscating the code, packing it or using other methods of protection such as randomizing function and variable names.