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What is JavaScript ?

Javascript evolved through a desire on the part of web-designers to take a greater level of 'control' over their pages. HTML was fine for the display of simple text and graphics but the World Wide Web is a 'dynamic' medium, which HTML does not represent. Page designers wanted their sites to 'interact' with the user.

And so JavaScript was born !

JavaScript was the brainchild of the web-guru's at Netscape. It is a programming language that can be used to add interactivity to your web-pages. Often you may see JavaScript referred to as a 'scripting' language as opposed to a 'programming' language, which seems to imply that it is somehow easier to script than a program. This is an invalid distinction.

Basically, a JavaScript is a program which is embedded in an HTML page. Because it appears in a 'script' tag, the browser knows that it should run this program when it encounters this tag.

What Isn't JavaScript ?

Despite the name, JavaScript is not JAVA. The two have almost nothing to do with one another. Java is a full featured programming language which can be used to create entire 'stand alone' applications. JavaSript is limited to operating within a browser and so, provides far more limited functionality. We say that the two have almost nothing to do with one another as they are both object oriented. Also, JavaScript can be used to interact with a Java Applet (a small Java program which runs on a web-page).







Glossary of terms



Java is a true object oriented language (see below) which was developed in the wake of 'C' and, more specifically, 'C++' by Sun Microsystems. It was developed specifically to be completely 'platform independant', that is, to be capable of running on any machine, no matter what operating system is running. (i.e Windows 95/98/NT , Unix (including Linux), Solaris or the Mac OS.)



Object-Oriented languages, such as C++, smalltalk and Java are based on the concept of objects , attributes and operations/methods.

An object is a 'thing', a real world example :- a car.
An attribute is a property of that 'thing', :- its' colour.
An operation/method is something that 'thing' does, or can have done to it, :- drives. (JavaScript incorporates some of the ideas and attributes but is not truly object-oriented).


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