Perks of learning JavaScript in 2020

What is JavaScript ?
JavaScript is a dynamic computer programming language. It is lightweight and most commonly used as a part of web pages, whose implementations allow client-side script to interact with the user and make dynamic pages. It is an interpreted programming language with object-oriented capabilities.

JavaScript is a lightweight, interpreted programming language. It is designed for creating network-centric applications. JavaScript is very easy to implement because it is integrated with HTML. It is open and cross-platform.

JavaScript was first known as LiveScript, but Netscape changed its name to JavaScript. JavaScript made its first appearance in Netscape 2.0 in 1995 with the name LiveScript. The general-purpose core of the language has been embedded in Netscape, Internet Explorer, and other web browsers.

The ECMA-262 Specification defined a standard version of the core JavaScript language.

• JavaScript is a lightweight, interpreted programming language.
• Designed for creating network-centric applications.
• Complementary to and integrated with HTML.
• Open and cross-platform

Advantages of JavaScript:
Javascript is a mandatory for students & working professionals to become a great Software engineer specially when they are working in the domain of Web Development. Below are some of the key advantages of learning Javascript:

1. Javascript is everywhere, it comes installed on every modern web browser and so to learn Javascript you really do not need any special environment setup. For example Chrome, Mozilla Firefox , Safari and every browser you know as of today, supports Javascript.

2. Javascript is the most popular programming language in the world and that makes it a programmer’s great choice. Once you learnt Javascript, it helps you developing great front-end as well as back-end softwares using different Javascript based frameworks like jQuery, Node.JS etc.

3. Javascript helps you create really beautiful and crazy fast websites. You can develop your website with a console like look and feel and give your users the best Graphical User Experience.

4. JavaScript usage has now extended to mobile app development, desktop app development, and game development. This opens many opportunities for you as Javascript Programmer.

5. Due to high demand, there is tons of job growth and high pay for those who know JavaScript. You can navigate over to different job sites to see what having JavaScript skills looks like in the job market.

6. Great thing about Javascript is that you will find tons of frameworks and Libraries already developed which can be used directly in your software development to reduce your time to market.
Useful Javascript frameworks and libraries available:
jQuery, Angular, React, Vue.js, Ember.js. Meteor, Node.js, Aurelia, Backbone.js
This is not a complete list of all the available Javascript frameworks and libraries. The Javascript world is just too large and too much new is happening.


Applications of Javascript programming language:
As mentioned before, Javascript is one of the most widely used programming languages (Front-end as well as Back-end). It has it's presence in almost every area of software development. I'm going to list few of them here:

1. Manipulating HTML Pages - Javascript helps in manipulating HTML page on the fly. This helps in adding and deleting any HTML tag very easily using javascript and modify your HTML to change its look and feel based on different devices and requirements.

2. Client side validation - This is really important to verify any user input before submitting it to the server and Javascript plays an important role in validting those inputs at front-end itself.

3. Back-end Data Loading - Javascript provides Ajax library which helps in loading back-end data while you are doing some other processing. This really gives an amazing experience to your website visitors. 

4. Server Applications - Node JS is built on Chrome's Javascript runtime for building fast and scalable network applications. This is an event based library which helps in developing very sophisticated server applications including Web Servers.

5. User Notifications - You can use Javascript to raise dynamic pop-ups on the webpages to give different types of notifications to your website visitors.

6. Presentations - JavaScript also provides the facility of creating presentations which gives website look and feel. JavaScript provides RevealJS and BespokeJS libraries to build a web-based slide presentations.
This list goes on, there are various areas where millions of software developers are happily using Javascript to develop great websites and others softwares.


Implementing the JavaScript code:
JavaScript can be implemented using JavaScript statements that are placed within the <script>... </script> tags in a web page.
You can place the <script> tags, containing your JavaScript, anywhere within your web page, but it is normally recommended that you should keep it within the <head> tags.
The <script> tag alerts the browser program to start interpreting all the text between these tags as a script. A simple syntax of your JavaScript will appear as follows.
<script>
   JavaScript code goes here...
</script>


Our first JavaScript code:
Consider a sample example to print out "Hello World". We call a function document.write which writes a string into our HTML document.
This function can be used to write text, HTML or both. Take a look at the below example.

<html>
   <body>  
      <script language = "javascript" type = "text/javascript">
            document.write("Hello World!")
      </script>     
   </body>
</html>

This code will produce the following result −
Hello World!
----------------


Comments in JavaScript:
1. Any text between a // and the end of a line is treated as a comment and is ignored by JavaScript.
2. Any text between the characters /* and */ is treated as a comment. This may span multiple lines.
The following example shows how to use comments in JavaScript.
<script language = "javascript" type = "text/javascript">
      // This is a single line comment.
      /*
       This is a multi-line comment in JavaScript
       This is a multi-line comment in JavaScript
      */

</script>

Conclusion:

As you have seen that there are hundreds of advantages & applications of knowing the JavaScript language. So, learning this programming in your bucket list should be a must for becoming a great programmer & specially a Web developer.

Happy Learning !