This module is intended to briefly introduce the value of JavaScript as a programming language and to specify the version of JavaScript (ES6) used in this course.
JavaScript is the language of interactivity on the web. That’s a big deal, given that the web is rather important. Pretty much every fancy thing you see a web page do is done with JavaScript!
Perhaps most importantly for learning, JavaScript is a modern language with a standard suite of features that are common across many languages. Your knowledge of JavaScript will allow you to learn other languages much, much more easily.
JavaScript is incredibly popular. This makes it a great learning language because so many people use it for so many tasks. For any question you have, there is likely an answer online. For any genre of program you want to write, there is probably a community online.
JavaScript has been around for a long time and has had many, many libraries and extensions created for it that give you greater power with less work! (More on this later in the course.)
JavaScript isn’t limited to programming for the web. With technologies like Node and Electron you can build your own applications in JavaScript.
JavaScript is under ongoing development, so there isn’t just one JavaScript for all time. Instead, there are a series of “releases” of the language.
In this class we will largely be using the most fundamental parts of the language, which have been the same “forever”, but we will also see some features from what is called the “ES6” release of JavaScript:
let to declare variablesconst to declare constantsIf you’re interested in all the other stuff ES6 introduces, do feel free to investigate online - there are many resources - but do be prepared to be a little blown away if you’re not already quite familiar with JavaScript. This ES6 Guide is a good place to start.
(ES6 stands for ECMAScript 6. ECMA stands for European Computer Manufacturers Association. Whaaaat? Don’t worry about it. Just call it JavaScript and you’ll be fine.)