JavaScript
JavaScript (JS) is a lightweight, interpreted, or just-in-time compiled programming
language with first-class functions. While it is most well-known as the scripting
language for Web pages, many non-browser environments also use it, such
as Node.js, Apache CouchDB and Adobe Acrobat. JavaScript is a prototype-based,
multi-paradigm, single-threaded, dynamic language, supporting object-oriented,
imperative, and declarative (e.g. functional programming) styles.
JavaScript's dynamic capabilities include runtime object construction, variable
parameter lists, function variables, dynamic script creation (via eval), object
introspection (via for...in and Object utilities), and source-code recovery (JavaScript
functions store their source text and can be retrieved through toString()).
This section is dedicated to the JavaScript language itself, and not the parts that are
specific to Web pages or other host environments. For information about APIs that
are specific to Web pages, please see Web APIs and DOM.
The standards for JavaScript are the ECMAScript Language Specification (ECMA-262)
and the ECMAScript Internationalization API specification (ECMA-402). As soon as
one browser implements a feature, we try to document it. This means that cases
where some proposals for new ECMAScript features have already been implemented
in browsers, documentation and examples in MDN articles may use some of those
new features. Most of the time, this happens between the stages 3 and 4, and is
usually before the spec is officially published.
Do not confuse JavaScript with the Java programming language — JavaScript
is not "Interpreted Java". Both "Java" and "JavaScript" are trademarks or registered
trademarks of Oracle in the U.S. and other countries. However, the two programming
languages have very different syntax, semantics, and use.
JavaScript documentation of core language features (pure ECMAScript, for the most
part) includes the following:
The JavaScript guide
The JavaScript reference
For more information about JavaScript specifications and related technologies,
see JavaScript technologies overview.
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Tutorials
Learn how to program in JavaScript with guides and tutorials.
For complete beginners
Head over to our Learning Area JavaScript topic if you want to learn JavaScript but have no
previous experience with JavaScript or programming. The complete modules available there
are as follows:
JavaScript first steps
Answers some fundamental questions such as "what is JavaScript?", "what does it
look like?", and "what can it do?", along with discussing key JavaScript features such
as variables, strings, numbers, and arrays.
JavaScript building blocks
Continues our coverage of JavaScript's key fundamental features, turning our
attention to commonly-encountered types of code blocks such as conditional
statements, loops, functions, and events.
Introducing JavaScript objects
The object-oriented nature of JavaScript is important to understand if you want to go
further with your knowledge of the language and write more efficient code, therefore
we've provided this module to help you.
Asynchronous JavaScript
Discusses asynchronous JavaScript, why it is important, and how it can be used to
effectively handle potential blocking operations such as fetching resources from a
server.
Client-side web APIs
Explores what APIs are, and how to use some of the most common APIs you'll come
across often in your development work.
JavaScript guide
JavaScript Guide
A much more detailed guide to the JavaScript language, aimed at those with previous
programming experience either in JavaScript or another language.
Intermediate
Understanding client-side JavaScript frameworks
JavaScript frameworks are an essential part of modern front-end web development,
providing developers with proven tools for building scalable, interactive web
applications. This module gives you some fundamental background knowledge about
how client-side frameworks work and how they fit into your toolset, before moving
on to a series of tutorials covering some of today's most popular ones.
JavaScript language overview
An overview of the basic syntax and semantics of JavaScript for those coming from
other programming languages to get up to speed.
JavaScript data structures
Overview of available data structures in JavaScript.
Equality comparisons and sameness
JavaScript provides three different value comparison operations: strict equality
using ===, loose equality using ==, and the Object.is() method.
Enumerability and ownership of properties
How different methods that visit a group of object properties one-by-one handle the
enumerability and ownership of properties.
Closures
A closure is the combination of a function and the lexical environment within which
that function was declared.
Advanced
Inheritance and the prototype chain
Explanation of the widely misunderstood and underestimated prototype-based
inheritance.
JavaScript typed arrays
JavaScript typed arrays provide a mechanism for accessing raw binary data.
Memory Management
Memory life cycle and garbage collection in JavaScript.
Concurrency model and Event Loop
JavaScript has a concurrency model based on an "event loop".
