Why is JavaScript important?
No! No! No! Don't run away! I know the love you have for JavaScript (sarcastically), but hear me out once...
Have you been in a situation, where "this" doesn't make sense (pun intended)? Or a function you wrote in JavaScript just doesn't seem to work? Well, let me assure you that you are not alone!
JavaScript is the most traditional and dominant scripting language. Don't trust me? Check the '2020 StackOverflow developer survey' where it is declared as most commonly used programming language for the eighth year in a row. It is currently used by 94.5% of the websites.
Why is JavaScript Important?
In 1995, when it was first designed by Brendan Eich at Netscape, its implementation was restricted to client side development only. (Fun Fact: It was initially called Mocha, then LiveScript and the final name given after the beta 3 release was JavaScript.) Later many frameworks were introduced that play a key role in the evolution of JavaScript. JQuery, Node.js, Angular, Backbone.js, Electron, React, Vue, Ember, Meteor, etc are popular frameworks.
- jQuery was created to help developers build sophisticated web pages.
- Through Node.js it made its way into server side development.
- React Native helped it to gain market for mobile development.
- Thanks to Electron, it was available for desktop applications too
Why should you learn JavaScript?
Well, learning JavaScript is inevitable if you are aiming to be a Full Stack Developer or a MERN/MEAN Stack Developer or a Web Developer. JavaScript has emerged and evolved from 1995 till date expanding its territory in all aspects. It supports event-driven, functional, and imperative (including object-oriented and prototype-based) programming styles. May be a new framework is being released while you are still reading this. Its that quick and trust me, I don't exaggerate!
Heard about AJAX?
Ajax stands for Asynchoronous JavaScript and XML. In layman's term, you can send and retrieve data through JavaScript, in the background, from the server, without even refreshing your page! In modern implementation it utilizes JSON instead of XML. JSON stands for JavaScript Object Notation, is a standard file format. This was made popular by Google in 2005 with Google Suggest!
How to start learning or coding in JavaScript?
There may be oodles of questions rushing through your mind whether on how to begin? Whether to do jump directly on framework? so on and so forth. First of all let me clear one common doubt most of you might be having. VanillaJS is the name used to refer plain JavaScript. Don't confuse it with some framework or some other js.
Now answering on where to begin, I suggest you to go for the basics first. From my personal experience, after learning VanillaJS, grasping other frameworks seems like a cake walk. You can understand the framework in depth with its internal working. After getting hands-on basics, the syntax, functions would look familiar and effortless.
With interview prespective, interviewers ask questions about vanillaJS and not on any of the frameworks. Even for a frontend developer job interview, questions can be asked on JavaScript.
I would like to conclude by saying "JavaScript is the language of web". If you are still not convinced, then I love meeting, while having a cup of coffee. I am sure we would have a lot to catch up! (Also this is my first blog. Please be kind :P)
Shraddha Keniya
Student of Professor Himanshu Thakkar. I am a programmer, my job is to make you jobless. Every programmer is an author :P
