Coding All-in-One For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Chapter 1

What Is JavaScript?

IN THIS CHAPTER

Getting to know JavaScript

Figuring out what JavaScript does

Understanding why you need JavaScript

“People understand me so poorly that they don’t even understand my complaint about them not understanding me.”

— SØREN KIERKEGAARD

JavaScript hasn’t always been as highly regarded as it is today. Some people have called it the best and worst programming language in the world. Over the last few years, there have been a great number of improvements made to the way programmers write JavaScript and to JavaScript interpreters. These improvements have made JavaScript a much better language today than it’s been in the past.

In this chapter, you discover what JavaScript is and a little bit of the history of the language. You also find out what JavaScript does and why you need to know it.

What Is JavaScript?

Back in the very early days of the web, browsers were simple readers for web pages (see Figure 1-1). They had virtually no capabilities themselves, except for the ability to display text in various sized fonts. As soon as Microsoft released its Internet Explorer browser, the browser wars were on, and the features started flying! One browser ...