Home / What on 🌐 is JavaSrcipt?
JavaScript is a synchronous, single-threaded language.
To understand JavaScript we have to go waaaay back to its creation!
JavaScript is a scripting language written by Brendan Eich in 1995 for the Netscape Navigator browser under the working name of “Mocha”. After being renamed to “JavaScript”, it was standardized by ECMA International as ECMA-262 or ECMAScript in 1997. The authoritative group of people/organizations in charge of the standard is known as TC-39.
And then God said, “Let there be JavaScript”
Over the next 25 years, it would see a variety of highs and lows. The most notable releases include
➡ ES1 1997.
➡ ES2 1998.
➡ ES3 1999. The longest-standing version of early JS.
➡ ES4 Never finalized.
➡ ES5 2009. Added JSON, strict mode, functional array methods, and more.
➡ ES6 2015. Added classes, promises, arrow functions, let/const, and much more.
➡ ES7, ES8, ES9, ESNext. Modern updates are now being released annually.
You can learn more about ECMAScript here.
This establishes the fact that it has nothing to do with Java. 🤗
JavaScript is continuously being developed with new additions added to it with every iteration. This is what makes it the most hated/loved language in the world!
Let's breakdown the various key terms associated to JavaScript:
✅ High-level
JavaScript is a high-level programming language. It essentially means that when you run a JavaScript code you don't think about allocating memory or getting a thread from the CPU to run your code. In other words, the level of abstraction is provided by a programming language. You get features like garbage-collectors, dynamic-typing which simplify a programmer's job.
✅ Interpreted
JavaScript is a JIT or Just-In-Time compiled language.
✅ Weakly Typed
Unlike most programming languages, JavaScript is weakly typed. It simply means the datatypes become known at runtime.
Here is a small example
// JavaScript
let message = "Keep smiling! 😄"; // 👈 Notice we don't mention a datatype.
const happiness = 100; // 👈 Notice we don't mention a datatype.
function add(a, b) {
// 👆 Notice we don't mention the datatypes of the return value.
return a + b;
}// Java
String message = "Keep smiling! 😄"; // 👈 Notice we mention a datatype, String in this case.
int happiness = 100; // 👈 Notice we mention a datatype, int in this case.
int add(int a, int b) { // 👈 Notice we mention the datatype of the return value, int in this case.
return(a+b);
}The type is associated at the run time value. This creates a huge ruckus for programmers 🤬! Here is where TypeScript comes to rescue. It is a strongly typed language and transplies the TypeScript code to JavaScript code.
Read more about TypeScript here.
✅ Single-Threaded
JavaScript is a single-threaded language. So it can only do only ONE computation at a time. When a JavaScript. To combat this, JavaScript implements the concept of Event Loops
✅ Synchronous
JavaScript is Synchronous, this essentailly means that each code runs line-by-line.
Lets recapitulate 📝:
➡ JavaScript is a high-level, weakly typed, interpreted, synchronous, single-threaded and JIT programming language.
➡ To overcome its blocking feature it implements Event Loops.Read more here.
See also