Javascript is a versatile and widely-used programming language that is primarily known for its role in web development.
Javascript is a single-threaded, asynchronous and non-blocking programming language.
It allows developers to create interactive and dynamic content on websites.
Javascript was introduced in 1995 by Brendan Eich, while he was working at Netscape Communications Corporation.
Initially, it was named Mocha, then later renamed to LiveScript and finally renamed to Javascript as a strategic move to capitalize on the popularity of Java at that time.
Javascript was created to make web pages more interactive by allowing developers to manipulate elements on a webpage in real-time.
Over time, its capabilities have expanded, and it is now used for a wide range of applications, including server-side development, mobile app development, and more.
1995: Javascript was Created by Netscape Communications Corporation as a scripting language for web pages development.
1996: Microsoft introduced `JScript` Language, its own version of Javascript for Internet Explorer.
1997: ECMAScript, The standardized specification for Javascript, was first published by ECMA International. This helped in standardizing the language across different implementations.
2005: Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) was introduced and it became popular, which allows web pages to make asynchronous requests to the server without reloading the current page, leading to more dynamic and responsive web applications.
2009: Javascript framework, Node.js was introduced and it is a runtime environment for Javascript applications outside of the browser, allowing developers to use Javascript for server-side programming.
2015: ECMAScript 2015 (ES6), a major release to the language, introduces enhancements such as arrow functions, classes, import, export, modules and more.
Subsequent Years: ECMAScript has been continuously updating with new features. It has introduced versions including ES7 (2016), ES8 (2017), ES9 (2018), ES10 (2019), ES11 (2020), ES12 (2021), and so on, with each version introducing new language features and improvements.
Javascript is mainly a client-side scripting language, meaning it runs in the user's web browser rather than on a server.
This enables it to respond to user actions, update the content dynamically, and enhance the user experience without requiring a page reload.
The Document Object Model (DOM) is a programming interface that represents the structure of a document as a tree of objects.
Javascript can manipulate the DOM to change the content and appearance of a webpage dynamically.
Javascript is a high-level programming language. it has human-readable code and is abstracted from the machine code.
Javascript interpreter: execute code line by line, without the need for compilation, making it an interpreted language.
Javascript supports asynchronous programming, allowing non-blocking operations through various features and techniques like callbacks, promises, and async/await.
Javascript inherits event-driven architecture (event-loop, call stack, callback queue, browser APIs and mini queue), making it suitable for building interactive web applications.
Javascript can run on various platforms, including web browsers, servers (via Node.js).