JavaScript

JavaScript (/ˈdʒɑːvɑːˌskrɪpt/; JS), also known as ECMAScript, is a dynamic programming language.

Description

It is most commonly used as part of web browsers, whose implementations include client-side scripts which perform a wide range of tasks, including:

• Interact with the user
• Control the browser
• Communicate asynchronously
• Alter the document content that is displayed

Web applications

JavaScript is widely used for web applications, including single-page applications.

Programming paradigms

JavaScript is classified as a prototype-based scripting language with dynamic typing and first-class functions. This mix of features makes it a multi-paradigm language, supporting object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles.

Non-web uses for JavaScript

JavaScript is also used in environments that aren not web-based, such as PDF documents, site-specific browsers, and desktop widgets.

Just-in-time compilation

On the client side, JavaScript has been traditionally implemented as an interpreted language, but more recent browsers perform just-in-time compilation.

Server-side JavaScript

JavaScript is also used in server-side network programming with runtime environments such as Node.js, game development and the creation of desktop and mobile applications.

Newer and faster JavaScript virtual machines (VMs) and platforms built upon them have also increased the popularity of JavaScript for server-side web applications.

Standards

JavaScript has been standardized in the ECMAScript language specification.

JavaScript is not Java

Despite some naming, syntactic, and standard library similarities, JavaScript and Java are otherwise unrelated and have very different semantics.

See also

• Asynchronous module definition
• Client-side scripting
• Computer program
• Immediately-invoked function expression
• Isomorphic Javascript application
• melonJS
• JavaScript associative arrays
• JavaScript destructuring
• JavaScript encapsulation
• JavaScript framework
• JavaScript object
• JavaScript prototype
• JavaScript syntax and semantics
• JSON
• Learning JavaScript (1)
• Recognizing JavaScript
• Simulations in JavaScript
• Using JavaScript
• Web browser
• WebGL

External links

• JavaScript @ wikipedia.org
• What you can do with JavaScript @ w3.org
• Getting Started: JavaScript 101 @ jquery.com
• Introduction to JavaScript @ by Fulvio Corno
• JavaScript Introduction @ w3schools.org
• JavaScript Tutorial @ w3schools.org
• http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/bb288795.aspx[ Introduction to JavaScript] @ microsoft.com
• Getting Started (JavaScript Tutorial) @ mozilla.org
• Introduction to JavaScript @ adobe.com
• Introduction to JavaScript @ sedgestuff.wordpress.com
• Introduction to JavaScript by ~ray
• Dive Into JavaScript @ yujianrong.github.io
• Eloquent JavaScript by Marijn Haverbeke
• Modern Introduction to Programming with JavaScript @ openbookproject.net
• Introduction to Functional Programming in JavaScript @ srirangan.net
• Introduction to Clean JavaScript Design @ svendvanderveken.wordpress.com
• A Re-Introduction to JavaScript @ mozilla.org
• JavaScript for the Total Non-Programmer @ webteacher.com
• A brief history of JavaScript
• Creative JS

JavaScript graphics:

• Dwitter - JavaScript animations using 140 characters or less