Chapter 9. Learning JavaScript

With the rise of the technology called AJAX (for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) in 2005, JavaScript lost its image as a poor amateur language, which it had since its first appearance in 1995. This image was mostly due to the language being used to achieve things that were regarded as useless gimmicks. If you were a Web developer in the late 1990s or early 2000s, you may be familiar with popular JavaScript effects from that time, such as status bar tickers, text flying after the mouse cursor, automatic resizing of windows, or annoying pop-ups.

In recent years, the art of writing good JavaScript has shifted its focus as Web developers began applying common programming techniques. They also started to use function ...

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