JavaScript is a key part of web design, the introduction of many interactive elements such as plugins, social media and other dynamic elements on web pages. For anyone who wants to develop or edit websites, it is very important that you understand how it works, how it can be modified and the impact it can have on the operation of a website, such as speed of the site. For programmers, SEOs and other web users, but how important is it?
What is JavaScript?
You’ve probably heard the term “JavaScript” thrown around here and there. Which is perfectly normal. After all, just about every page on the Internet that has crawled out of the 90s relies on JavaScript to make it interactive. Before JavaScript, the Internet was a library of static websites stored only with words (html) and styles (known today as CSS) – there was nothing dazzling about it, compared to the Web of today. But when JavaScript was invented by Netscape Mid-’90s, an entirely new era of the web was born. So it’s a revolution.
JavaScript, in its literal sense, is a front-end programming language that allows you to have more control over what your website does. It adds flair and movement to menus, does animations that CSS simply can’t do, and sends information from point A to B. It’s the language that unlocks interactivity. It dictates how a site responds and reacts to how visitors use your website. And while websites can work without JavaScript today, the web would be a lot less exciting if no one used it. In fact, some sites aren’t even usable without JS. So this is a way for you to change canvas mode by itself.
More details on JavaScipt
At its heart, JavaScript is a programming language. Not to be confused with Java, JavaScript is an easy way to make websites more interactive and therefore more attractive to visitors. What’s so good about JavaScript from a developer point of view is that the commands can be very easily executed by novice coders, and you don’t need a development environment in which to tweak JavaScript it can be coded in the browser. JavaScript was developed in 1995 by Netscape to connect Java with scripting languages. When first introduced, websites comprised very static HTML pages, interlinked to provide information in a very simple manner. JavaScript changes that, allowing developers to create more engaging content, responding to user clicks, scrolls and, more recently, finger actions like pinch-to-zoom on touchscreens.