JavaScript (JS)

Techopedia explains JavaScript (JS)

HTML pages are fine for displaying static content, e.g. a simple image or text. However, most pages nowadays are rarely static. Many of today’s pages have menus, forms, slideshows and even images that provide user interaction. Javascript is the language employed by web developers to provide such interaction. Since JavaScript works with HTML pages, a developer needs to know HTML to harness this scripting language’s full potential. While there are other languages that can be used for scripting on the Web, in practice it is essentially all Javascript. There are two ways to use JavaScript in an HTML file. The first one involves embedding all the JavaScript code in the HTML code, while the second method makes use of a separate JavaScript file that’s called from within a Script element, i.e., enclosed by Script tags. JavaScript files are identified by the .js extension. Although JavaScript is mostly used to interact with HTML objects, it can also be made to interact with other non-HTML objects such as browser plugins, CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) properties, the current date, or the browser itself. To write JavaScript code, all you need is a basic text editor like Notepad in Windows, Gimp in Linux, or BBEdit. Some text editors, like BBEdit feature syntax highlighting for JavaScript. This will allow you easily identify elements of JavaScript code. The latest versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Opera all support JavaScript.