May 2011
Intermediate to advanced
1093 pages
40h 54m
English
Content preview from JavaScript: The Definitive Guide, 6th EditionBecome an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
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Chapter 1. Introduction to JavaScript
JavaScript is the programming language of the Web. The overwhelming majority of modern websites use JavaScript, and all modern web browsers—on desktops, game consoles, tablets, and smart phones—include JavaScript interpreters, making JavaScript the most ubiquitous programming language in history. JavaScript is part of the triad of technologies that all Web developers must learn: HTML to specify the content of web pages, CSS to specify the presentation of web pages, and JavaScript to specify the behavior of web pages. This book will help you master the language.
If you are already familiar with other programming languages, it may help you to know that JavaScript is a high-level, dynamic, untyped interpreted programming language that is well-suited to object-oriented and functional programming styles. JavaScript derives its syntax from Java, its first-class functions from Scheme, and its prototype-based inheritance from Self. But you do not need to know any of those languages, or be familiar with those terms, to use this book and learn JavaScript.
The name “JavaScript” is actually somewhat misleading. Except for a superficial syntactic resemblance, JavaScript is completely different from the Java programming language. And JavaScript has long since outgrown its scripting-language roots to become a robust and efficient general-purpose language. The latest version of the language (see the sidebar) defines new features for serious large-scale software ...
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O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.Amir M.
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.