Technology is something that changes almost every day. The same goes for tech trends, tools and new programming languages. However, there are some like JavaScript, which although emerged more than a decade ago, still holds the future. The popular programming language continues to sow its seeds in an evolving software industry to produce highly responsive web applications packed with advanced features and catering to the dynamic needs of user-centric businesses.
JavaScript has become the dominant language of the web as all the modern web browsers implement this language. It is the only language that can be deployed on all personal computers and mobile devices globally. However, critics say it’s not really the most refined language and is considered by many programmers as syntantically “messy”. So, what’s all the noise about?
Latest buzz
JavaScript has been constantly dubbed by the web development community as the most popular programming language. As per the new developer survey released by Stack Overflow, a popular online community for developers, in March this year, JavaScript continued to be the most commonly used programming language for the fifth year in a row.
Stack Overflow also listed the most popular languages by occupation, where JavaScript again dominated, placing No.1 in Web Developer, Sysadmin/DevOps and Data Scientist/Engineer categories and No. 2 in the Desktop Developer section, where SQL barely edged it out by 0.2 percentage points. JavaScript-based offerings also fared well in the category of most popular "frameworks, libraries and other technologies,” where Node.js and AngularJS were first and second.
The strong showing of JavaScript probably isn’t much of a surprise to most developers, as it continually ranks highly in other survey and reports. Earlier this year, for example, the biannual Redmonk language popularity report listed JavaScript as No. 1, as it did several times previously. And in January, JavaScript was named the ‘Application & Data Tool of the Year’ for 2016 by StackShare Inc, which runs a developer-only community that tracks software tools. It also garnered “programming language of the year” honours for 2014 by the TIOBE Index. Why does JavaScript continue to be the first choice of developers?
First things first
What is JavaScript? Well, JavaScript is a client and server-side computer scripting language. It is supported by all popular browsers including Microsoft Internet Explorer (beginning with version 3.0), Firefox, Opera, Safari and Google Chrome, among others. It can be used across multiple Web browsers and has the capability of making a website more interactive with features such as slideshows, ad pop-ups and Google’s auto complete functionality. It is also used in game development and writing desktop applications.
How did it all start
JavaScript was first created by Brendan Eich, an American technologist, while working at Netscape in 1995. Eich later co-founded the Mozilla project. Eich originally joined intending to put Scheme “in the browser”, but his Netscape superiors insisted that the language resemble Java in terms of its syntax. The result was a language that had much of the functionality of Scheme, the object orientation of Self, and the syntax of Java. Initially, it was nicknamed Mocha, further released in beta as LiveScript and then it eventually got named as JavaScript when Sun Microsystems signed a licence agreement with Netscape.
In the first decade after its release, JavaScript was widely criticised with many professional programmers denigrating the language because, among other reasons, its target audience consisted of Web authors and other such “amateurs”. However, with the advent of Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX), developers started changing their mindset and the language’s journey began to the path of popularity.
Why is it still so popular?
It's easy: JavaSrcipt is a syntantically simple language and also has a huge open source community to seek out help from in case you get stuck. As developers are able to use the same language in the front end and back end, it makes the programming task easier. It’s accessible: Since JavaScript runs in a browser, you don’t need to download it in order to use it. All you need is a text editor. Also, it doesn’t require any special compilers or editors. On the client side, it comes with a browser and executes within a browser. Best of all, it’s completely free.
You don’t need to buy JavaScript.
It’s extensible: The functionality of any web application can be extended by adding third-party add-ons in JavaScript: JSON, AJAX, Nodejs, MongoDB, jQuery. These tools take this “messy” looking language to the next level. Nodejs/MongoDB allows for it to be used as a backend language; AJAX gives it optimised loading times and a fabulous user experience; and jQuery gives it an extensive code library that makes writing complex Javascript much quicker and easier.
It has free frameworks and libraries: Developing a software is not quite easy. However, there are free frameworks and libraries available in JavaScript that allow developers to code error-free and quickly. While some popular frameworks are AngularJS, Backbone.js and Bootstrap, a few libraries are jQuery, Prototype, and Dojo.
JavaScript has become the dominant language of the web as all the modern web browsers implement this language. It is the only language that can be deployed on all personal computers and mobile devices globally. However, critics say it’s not really the most refined language and is considered by many programmers as syntantically “messy”. So, what’s all the noise about?
Latest buzz
JavaScript has been constantly dubbed by the web development community as the most popular programming language. As per the new developer survey released by Stack Overflow, a popular online community for developers, in March this year, JavaScript continued to be the most commonly used programming language for the fifth year in a row.
Stack Overflow also listed the most popular languages by occupation, where JavaScript again dominated, placing No.1 in Web Developer, Sysadmin/DevOps and Data Scientist/Engineer categories and No. 2 in the Desktop Developer section, where SQL barely edged it out by 0.2 percentage points. JavaScript-based offerings also fared well in the category of most popular "frameworks, libraries and other technologies,” where Node.js and AngularJS were first and second.
The strong showing of JavaScript probably isn’t much of a surprise to most developers, as it continually ranks highly in other survey and reports. Earlier this year, for example, the biannual Redmonk language popularity report listed JavaScript as No. 1, as it did several times previously. And in January, JavaScript was named the ‘Application & Data Tool of the Year’ for 2016 by StackShare Inc, which runs a developer-only community that tracks software tools. It also garnered “programming language of the year” honours for 2014 by the TIOBE Index. Why does JavaScript continue to be the first choice of developers?
First things first
What is JavaScript? Well, JavaScript is a client and server-side computer scripting language. It is supported by all popular browsers including Microsoft Internet Explorer (beginning with version 3.0), Firefox, Opera, Safari and Google Chrome, among others. It can be used across multiple Web browsers and has the capability of making a website more interactive with features such as slideshows, ad pop-ups and Google’s auto complete functionality. It is also used in game development and writing desktop applications.
How did it all start
JavaScript was first created by Brendan Eich, an American technologist, while working at Netscape in 1995. Eich later co-founded the Mozilla project. Eich originally joined intending to put Scheme “in the browser”, but his Netscape superiors insisted that the language resemble Java in terms of its syntax. The result was a language that had much of the functionality of Scheme, the object orientation of Self, and the syntax of Java. Initially, it was nicknamed Mocha, further released in beta as LiveScript and then it eventually got named as JavaScript when Sun Microsystems signed a licence agreement with Netscape.
In the first decade after its release, JavaScript was widely criticised with many professional programmers denigrating the language because, among other reasons, its target audience consisted of Web authors and other such “amateurs”. However, with the advent of Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX), developers started changing their mindset and the language’s journey began to the path of popularity.
Why is it still so popular?
It's easy: JavaSrcipt is a syntantically simple language and also has a huge open source community to seek out help from in case you get stuck. As developers are able to use the same language in the front end and back end, it makes the programming task easier. It’s accessible: Since JavaScript runs in a browser, you don’t need to download it in order to use it. All you need is a text editor. Also, it doesn’t require any special compilers or editors. On the client side, it comes with a browser and executes within a browser. Best of all, it’s completely free.
You don’t need to buy JavaScript.
It’s extensible: The functionality of any web application can be extended by adding third-party add-ons in JavaScript: JSON, AJAX, Nodejs, MongoDB, jQuery. These tools take this “messy” looking language to the next level. Nodejs/MongoDB allows for it to be used as a backend language; AJAX gives it optimised loading times and a fabulous user experience; and jQuery gives it an extensive code library that makes writing complex Javascript much quicker and easier.
It has free frameworks and libraries: Developing a software is not quite easy. However, there are free frameworks and libraries available in JavaScript that allow developers to code error-free and quickly. While some popular frameworks are AngularJS, Backbone.js and Bootstrap, a few libraries are jQuery, Prototype, and Dojo.
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