JavaScript overview from A-to-Z

Introduction

The standard and most popular scripting language for the web is JavaScript. Similarly, the main part of our device detection API uses JS. Therefore, we figured is was time to give an overview of JavaScript in one of our blogpost. Thus, in this post we will describe the most import aspects of JavaScript. We start with a short history lesson about JS. Subsequently, I cover the popularity of JS in numbers. The post ends with an overview about the most popular JS libraries and frameworks. So, let’s start and enjoy reading 🙂

JavaScript: a history overview

In 1989 the world wide web (WWW) was invented with the purpose to improve information sharing between universities and science institutes. One year later the first web-browser emerged simply named: ‘WorldWideWeb’. However, the first commercial-like browser came in 1993 by the Netscape Communications Corporation. In the beginning of 1995 Netscape was one of the most popular web-browsers out there.

Until that moment the WWW has been static with only HTML being available. To expand and further develop the WWW Netscape Communications Corporation created JavaScript (at that time called Mocha). The goal of JS was to create a more dynamic web with interactions. Even more important was the usability by designers in contrast to software developers. Thus, the code should be small, simple, and easy!

To keep up with the competition (i.e. Internet Explorer by Microsoft) NetScape partnered with Sun Microsystems. Sun Microsystems was the creator of Java: a language for smart applications. However, Java did not suit this audience (web designers). More specifically, Java was too big and targeted at large corporations.

Nevertheless, Brendan Eich (head of JavaScript at Netscape) created a working prototype. In a short period of time JavaScript was integrated in their web-browser. JavaScript was born to be a small client side scripting language.

Nowadays, JavaScript is still the standard scripting language for the WWW. All popular web browser integrated JS. Currently, several JS libraries and frameworks are available.

JavaScript viewed with statistics

The numbers reflect the popularity of Javascript. Currently about 94% of the webpages use JavaScript. Similarly, JS is popular among developers. Stack Overflow conducted a survey among 32000+ developers. They concluded that JS is the most popular programming language for the 5th year in a row. More specifically, over 62% of the 32000+ developers make use of JavaScript.

jQuery

To make JavaScript even more simpler jQuery appeared. In 2006 John Resig introduced jQuery to take common, repetitive tasks out. More specifically, jQuery simplifies CSS animation, event handling, and AJAX. Today jQuery is the most popular JavaScript library out there.

jQuery is makes use of the DOM (document object model) structure of web pages. The DOM model represents the elements on a page (for example a <h5> element). With jQuery it is easy to select and manipulate these elements.

The difference between JS and jQuery is illustrated below. The first is in JavaScript and the second in jQuery.

JavaScript Frameworks

Initially JavaScript is designed as a client side language. However, nowadays both client and served side is JS based. To give some structure in the development process we created JS frameworks. Next, we will cover 3 of the most popular JS frameworks of today: Angular, react, and Vue.JS.

Angular

AngularJS is developed by Google but is an open-source framework. After the first release in 2010 AngularJS was rewritten and renamed to Angular in 2016. Angular is a front-end framework targeted at single page applications. About 24% of JavaScript developers are currently using Angular. Even more interesting is the fact that the framework is ranked as 3rd among the frond-end JS frameworks.

React

Facebook developed React in 2011. However, it is open-source framework and has over 1300 contributors on Github. This framework is very flexible and compatible with other frameworks. React is designed for both client and server side. Over 65% of the JavaScript developers are currently using React. So, React ranked 1st among the front-end JS frameworks.

Vue.JS

Vue.JS is the second most popular JS framework and used by over 64k websites worldwide. It is build on other frameworks like Angular. Vue.JS is a lightweight framework developed by Evan You (former employee of Google). Compared to React and Angluar this framework is more easy to configure.

Conclusion

It is obvious JavaScript is central to web development. More specifically, it is the most popular scripting language. More than 94% of the websites worldwide use JS. So if you want to become a web developer you should start by learning JS. Also make sure to check out our device detection API. Happy coding :).