What Is JavaScript and How Does It Work?

There’s a good chance that you’re already using a web service that relies on javascript. From Facebook timeline updates to Google suggesting search terms based on a few letters you’ve started typing, javascript is everywhere.

However, javascript is much more than just a powerful scripting language. It’s also a programming framework that provides the structure for interactive web pages and enables developers to create some pretty amazing applications.

It’s no wonder that it’s the flagship of interactive web development and has become one of the most popular languages used in the world today. Let’s dive into what javascript is and how it works so that we can understand the power behind some of your favorite online experiences.

The core of javascript is a high-level language, meaning that it doesn’t interact directly with a machine’s bare hardware. It’s a lot like C/C++ in that regard, but unlike C/C++, it doesn’t require memory-management because it uses garbage-collection by default. This means that it’s easy to get started coding in JavaScript and doesn’t require the investment of memory that you might make in other higher-level languages, such as C/C++.

It’s also a dynamic language, which means that it can change the way that HTML is displayed on a web page by modifying the Document Object Model API. This allows websites to change the layout of their pages and add a level of interactivity that wouldn’t be possible with traditional web design techniques. Of course, it’s important to keep in mind the user experience when adding these elements to a website. You wouldn’t want a minigame to pop up while you’re doing your online banking or wade through distracting animations while looking for medical information.

To do this, a web page must first be loaded and parsed by the browser to execute the code within it. The code in a web page is generally loaded and executed in the order that it appears on the page. However, some scripts can be loaded and executed separately by using the async or defer attributes in their script> element. The async attribute causes the script to run immediately and the defer attribute allows it to run only after the HTML and any other scripts have finished loading and parsing.

Another key feature of javascript is its ability to use different data types. Primitive data types store a single value, and non-primitive data types (such as boolean) store either true or false values.

Another common use of javascript is to create functions that can be called from HTML tags. For example, you can use a function to generate the code for a button on a webpage by placing it in an HTML tag with a jQuery listener attached to it. If the listener is pressed, then the function will be run. Functions can also take arguments that are passed to them by the browser, such as the name of a variable or the URL of an image.