JavaScript(JS) is a programming language of the web. It is
commonly used to make the web pages more interactive. Many websites use it to provide
more features and improve user experience. All of the browsers that we use
today have a dedicated JavaScript engine to execute it. JavaScript was originally named Mocha and then
LiveScript and finally JavaScript. A
common misunderstanding is that JavaScript is similar to
Java. They both are different languages. Initially JavaScript was
developed as a client-side scripting language but with the invention of
Node.js, it can also be used as a server-side language which can be executed
without a browser. JavaScript is based on the ECMAScript(ES) specification which
standardizes it.
Today JavaScript has become very popular and it keeps
expanding its application area. Its use is not limited to the web. Desktop
applications, mobile applications can also be created with it. Technology
giants like Google, Facebook, Microsoft use it to build complex web
applications. One of the reasons for its popularity is the availability of vast
free and open source frameworks and libraries.
Front end web development can be done using a framework or
just plain JS code. Vanilla JavaScript is a term used to indicate a plain
JavaScript code without the using any framework or library. Some of the most
popular front end JS frameworks are Angular, React.js, Vue.js. These frameworks
are used to build Single Page Applications (SPA). SPA is a web application or a
web site that interacts with the user dynamically without reloading the entire
page from the server. There is a popular JS library called JQuery which is
designed to simplify client-side scripting. Famous companies such as Google, Microsoft
use Angular in the front end to provide better user experience.
With the help of Node.js, back end development can also be
done using JS. Node.js is an open source, cross platform JS run-time
environment that executes JS code outside of a browser. It lets the developers
use JS to write command line tools and server-side scripts. It uses a package
manager called npm. This package manager makes it easier for the developers to
publish and share the source code. It also simplifies the process of adding and
removing different libraries developed by others. Express.js is one of the
popular free and open source server-side frameworks for Node.js. It can be used
to create server-side scripts and APIs. Global companies such as Netflix,
LinkedIn, NASA use Node.js in their servers.
The power of JS is not limited to the web. It has also
conquered mobile application development area.
React Native, Ionic, NativeScript are some of the most trending
frameworks currently being used for mobile application development. All of
these support both Android and IOS operating systems. The main advantage of
these frameworks is that code is written only once and application can be
published to any platform desired without having to rewrite the code. The
mobile applications of Facebook, Instagram, Skype are using React Native.
Desktop applications can also be developed with JS. Electron
is a popular JS framework used to build cross platform desktop applications with
JS, HTML and CSS. Applications can be
written using JS and it can be published to Windows, Linux or Mac without
having to rewrite the code. It is used in most popular desktop applications such
as Visual Studio Code, Atom, Discord and Spotify.
Video games, machine learning, real-time communication and a
lot more can be done using JS. Phaser.js
is a HTML5 game framework that can be used to build video games. For machine
learning there is a framework called brain.js which is a library of neural
networks. Socket.io is a framework that provides for real-time, bidirectional
and event-based communication facility. It can be used for instant messaging
and real-time analytics.
JS covers many areas
in the software field. This is mainly
due to the fact that there is no real competitor to it. However there are alternative
languages such as CoffeeScript, Dart and TypeScript but ultimately they are
transpiled to JS in the end. JS keeps evolving every day and it is here to stay
for a long time. – Hrishikesha. U, III BCA
