Originally, Javascript was created in 1995 by developer Brendan Eich of Netscape Communications. It wasn’t until 1999, though, that the language really started to shine when it became popular with web developers. As HTML5 became popular, Javascript has evolved to meet the demands of web developers.
As developer interest grew, browser makers began adopting version of ECMA Script . The first such standard was known as ES3 standardized in 1999. Now We are at ES6 and have come a long way since it’s beginnings.
Javascript For Today
Today’s web developer is faced with a number of challenges when writing Javascript. With so many browsers out there, it can be difficult to ensure that your Javascript will function on every platform without any hiccups. Here are some guidelines you can follow that will help ensure compatibility across all browsers.
These days Javascript is a key part of modern web development and is usually paired with HTML5 and CSS3 for a developer’s most important stack. Modern implementations of Javascript have survived several rounds of standardization from ECMA International using their own dialects of the language: ECMAScript , most recently ES6 or ECMAScript 2015 . In addition to standardization efforts from browser makers such as Google, Mozilla and Microsoft there are also transposers which convert one version of the language into another. Other things to look out for are tools that help you identify errors in your code when it happens. Some developer tools will even highlight potential issues before you compile, which can make debugging much easier when trying to figure out why your Javascript doesn’t work the way you want it to.
Developers are also constantly redefining what Javascript is capable of doing. It’s quickly becoming a language that makes heavy use of closures and prototypal inheritance rather than relying on classical inheritance. A developer is constantly learning new tricks, too. For example, did you know that if statements in Javascript don’t have curly braces around them? You might find this surprising but they won’t actually break, instead lacking their usual behavior. The same applies for while loops or any other block which should be enclosed by curly braces. Javascript can be extended even further by using libraries, which help to manage DOM elements or other resources that might otherwise be too much for the developer to handle on their own.
In Conclusion
Today’s web developer is faced with a number of challenges when writing Javascript including browser compatibility and getting the most out of Javascript’s capabilities through tools and libraries. By following some guidelines you can ensure your code will function across all browsers while maintaining efficiency and readability. When debugging, developer tools can help find errors so you don’t lose time trying to figure out what went wrong. JS can also be extended through usage of external libraries which contain functions not usually found in the language itself, making many tasks easier than doing them from scratch yourself.