Industrial Use case of JavaScript?

🔹 What is JavaScript ?

JavaScript is a dynamic programming language that’s used for web development, in web applications, for game development, and lots more. It allows you to implement dynamic features on web pages that cannot be done with only HTML and CSS.

JavaScript was first known as LiveScript, but Netscape changed its name to JavaScript, possibly because of the excitement being generated by Java. JavaScript made its first appearance in Netscape 2.0 in 1995 with the name LiveScript. The general-purpose core of the language has been embedded in Netscape, Internet Explorer, and other web browsers.

Many browsers use JavaScript as a scripting language for doing dynamic things on the web. Any time you see a click-to-show dropdown menu, extra content added to a page, and dynamically changing element colors on a page, to name a few features, you’re seeing the effects of JavaScript.

🔹 Client-Side JavaScript

A most common form of language is the Client-Side JavaScript’s. Browsers need to interpret the scripts, for that, it has to be included or pointed by the HTML document. JavaScript’s included in the HTML, for this it is not mandatory for HTML to be static. But adding scripts we can make a more interactive webpage. Client-Side scripts provide advantages over traditional server-side scripts, e.g. we an implement JavaScript to validate basic information filled on the webpage such as age for numbers, e-mail for @ and .com, etc. The scripts developed and embedded for validation, are executed once the user submits the form and if the entries are valid form will be submitted else error message will pop up.

Features of Client-Side JavaScript

• We can Control Document Appearance and Content
• We can Control the Browser like pop-up boxes
• Interact with HTML Forms e.g. we can have to submit button
• Interact with the User e.g. we a display messages on a particular text or word.

🔹 Why JavaScript Is Unique?

There are various tools and programming languages available for the creation of web browsers. JavaScript is distinctive from any of them due to the presence of three features which are uniquely combined. The incorporation of these three features together is made available only in JavaScript and this makes it a unique programming language especially for interface design.

• It provides complete integration with HTML. HTML is a standard tool for the development of web pages. Assimilation of JavaScript brings in powerful libraries and tools to handle most of the required
  tasks.
• Along with being integrated with HTML, it also is supported by all browsers which makes it the ultimate choice
• The programming language is efficient with constantly evolving libraries. This makes JavaScript a high performing programming language in all areas of web, mobile app developments, and even IOT.

Major Companies Are Using JavaScript

There’s no denying that JavaScript is everywhere, let’s see how are some of the world’s largest tech companies using JavaScript.

Microsoft

Okay, so you’re probably not going to find JavaScript powering Windows anytime soon, but Microsoft relies on JavaScript for a whole lot else.

First off, Microsoft needs to work closely with JavaScript to built its Edge web browser. All browsers need to process and execute JavaScript efficiently, so Microsoft has developed and maintains its own JavaScript engine for Edge. Actually, there has been talk of them creating an alternate version of NodeJS with the Edge engine.

Recently, Microsoft has really embraced NodeJS. They thoroughly support Node on the Azure cloud platform. Its one of Azure’s major features, and they’ve integrated Visual Studio support for Node.

Microsoft has also developed a version of Node for Internet Of Things(IoT) applications. NodeJS is great of IoT because it’s light weight and efficient.

Google

How doesn’t Google use JavaScript? Seriously, it’s everywhere. Google’s search results that spring up as your typing get there with JavaScript. The Gmail web client is powered by JavaScript. Google Docs? Yeah, that’s JavaScript too.

Google develops and usually open sources it’s own JavaScript tools. The most obvious example is AngularJS. Angular is used most prominently in Google’s DoubleClick advertising platform, but it’s also one of the most popular front end frameworks available. It’s even part of the MEAN stack.

Google’s more intensive services, like Google Docs, use Closure Tools. This set of tools compiles JavaScript into a lower-level faster form more suited for rich and highly responsive web applications.

There’s another big point to touch on. Google developed Chrome. Chrome, being a web browser, needed a JavaScript engine, so Google also made V8. V8 not only powers Chrome, it’s at the heart of NodeJS. So, without Google, there would be no Node.

Facebook

You’re probably aware that Facebook uses JavaScript. It’s kind of hard to miss. What’s probably not as obvious is exactly how much JavaScript goes into making Facebook and how much Facebook is involved in JavaScript development.

Try disabling JavaScript in your web browser and going to Facebook. The website will actually stop you from logging in because it won’t work without JavaScript.

You may have noticed the way that Facebook loads. Each piece of the page is separate. Facebook has invented its own way of breaking down and delivering sections of JavaScript separately. In an odd way, each section of your Facebook page is a collection of independent JavaScript applications.

It doesn’t stop there. Facebook created React, one of the most popular front end frameworks. Facebook uses React on Facebook.com as well as Instagram and WhatsApp.

🔹 Advantages of JavaScript

• Speed — JavaScript tends to be very fast because it is often run immediately within the client’s browser. So long as it doesn’t require outside resources, JavaScript isn’t slowed down by calls to a backend server. Also, major browsers all support JIT (just in time) compilation for JavaScript, meaning that there’s no need to compile the code before running it.
• Simplicity — JavaScript’s syntax was inspired by Java’s and is relatively easy to learn compared to other popular languages like C++.
• Popularity — JavaScript is everywhere on the web, and with the advent of Node.js, is increasingly used on the backend. There are countless resources to learn JavaScript. Both StackOverflow and GitHub show an increasing amount of projects that use JavaScript, and the traction it’s gained in recent years is only expected to increase.
• Interoperability — Unlike PHP or other scripting languages, JavaScript can be inserted into any web page. JavaScript can be used in many different kinds of applications because of support in other languages like Pearl and PHP.
• Server Load — JavaScript is client-side, so it reduces the demand on servers overall, and simple applications may not need a server at all.
• Rich interfaces — JavaScript can be used to create features like drag and drop and components such as sliders, all of which greatly enhance the user interface and experience of a site.
• Extended Functionality — Developers can extend the functionality of web pages by writing snippets of JavaScript for third party add-ons like Greasemonkey.
• Versatility — There are many ways to use JavaScript through Node.js servers. If you were to bootstrap Node.js with Express, use a document database like MongoDB, and use JavaScript on the frontend for clients, it is possible to develop an entire JavaScript app from front to back using only JavaScript.
• Updates — Since the advent of ECMAScript 5 (the scripting specification that JavaScript relies on), ECMA International has been dedicated to updating JavaScript annually. So far, we have received browser support for ES6 in 2017 and look forward to ES7 being supported in the future.

🔹 Disadvantages of JavaScript

• Client-Side Security — Since JavaScript code is executed on the client-side, bugs and oversights can sometimes be exploited for malicious purposes. Because of this, some people choose to disable JavaScript entirely.
• Browser Support — While server-side scripts always produce the same output, different browsers sometimes interpret JavaScript code differently. These days the differences are minimal, and you shouldn’t have to worry about it as long as you test your script in all major browsers.

🔹 Uses of JavaScript

JavaScript helps the users to build modern web applications to interact directly without reloading the page every time. JavaScript is commonly used to dynamically modify HTML and CSS to update a user interface by the DOM API. It is mainly used in web applications.

Let’s discuss the uses of JavaScript. Some of the uses of JavaScript are representing in the following image.

1. Web Applications

As day-by-day there is a continuous improvement in the browsers, so JavaScript gained popularity for making robust web applications. We can understand it by taking the example of Google Maps. In Maps user just requires to click and drag the mouse; the details are visible just by a click. There is a use of JavaScript behind these concepts.

2. Web Development

JavaScript is commonly used for creating web pages. It allows us to add dynamic behavior to the webpage and add special effects to the webpage. On websites, it is mainly used for validation purposes. JavaScript helps us to execute complex actions and also enables the interaction of websites with visitors. Using JavaScript, it is also possible to load the content in a document without reloading the webpage.

3. Mobile Applications

Now a day’s mobile devices are broadly used for accessing the internet. Using JavaScript, we can also build an application for non-web contexts. The features and uses of JavaScript make it a powerful tool for creating mobile applications. The React Native is the widely used JavaScript framework for creating mobile applications. Using React Native, we can build mobile applications for different operating systems. We do not require writing different codes for the iOS and Android operating systems. We only need to write it once and run it on different platforms.

4. Game

JavaScript is also used for creating games. It has various libraries and frameworks for creating a game. The game can either be a 2D or 3D. Some JavaScript game engines such as PhysicsJS, Pixi.js help us to create a web game. We can also use the WebGL (web graphics library), which is the JavaScript API to render 2D and 3D images on browsers.

5. Presentations

JavaScript also helps us to create presentations as a website. The libraries, such as RevealJs, and BespokeJs, can be used to create a web-based slide deck. They are easier to use, so we can easily make something amazing in a short time.

The Reveal.js is used to create interactive and beautiful slide decks with the help of HTML. These presentations work great with mobile devices and tablets. It also supports all of the CSS color formats. The BespokeJS includes animated bullet lists, responsive scaling, and a wide variety of features.

6. Server Applications

A large number of web applications have a server-side to them. JavaScript is used to generate content and handle HTTP requests. JavaScript can also run on servers through Node.js. The Node.js provides an environment containing the necessary tools required for JavaScript to run on servers.

7. Web Servers

A web server can be created by using Node.js. Node.js is event-driven and not waits for the response of the previous call. The servers created using Node.js are fast and don’t use buffering and transfer chunks of data. The HTTP module can be used to create the server by using the createServer() method. This method executes when someone tries to access the port 8080. As a response, the HTTP server should display HTML and should be included in the HTTP header.

Conclusion

As a result of all the above applications of JavaScript, it would be pretty clear that JavaScript is the language that is to stay. With all the features in frontend and backend development JavaScript helps in supporting both and creating some best applications that can be used worldwide.

Thankyou for reading this article 🥰!!

— Priya Singh