8 Reasons to Learn JavaScript
JavaScript is known as the front-end development language. However, little is known about the true nature of this language. Although it appears like a simple language, it’s sophisticated roots run deep. As a matter of fact, this language has a rich and power ecosystem for front-end, middleware, and back-end development. It’s evolution is blazing fast, it’s innovation is revolutionary, and it’s got the world’s largest package system (NPM)! There is no denying it’s rise and demand in today’s world.
Hello, my name is Robert and today I’m going go over 8 awesome reasons why you should learn JavaScript.
1. It’s Powerful
JavaScript has some outstanding frameworks that have revolutionized web development. With the popularity of frameworks like AngularJS and ReactJS, we see an emergence of Single Page Applications (SPA). These are 100% HTML-based web pages that can load and re-write its’ contents dynamically from just a single page. These types of apps are JavaScript-heavy and create a fluid experience for the user. It can take advantage of routes, caching, web store, data binding, and ajax. This can delegate the front-end development to the client-side while freeing the Restful API calls to the middleware. No longer will the server-side need to do anymore page rendering. As a matter of fact, the entire web site can be downloaded to the user upon the initial request. This makes Single Page Applications behave much like a full-blown desktop application.
Web Sockets is an HTML5 feature that allows for better interactivity between a client and a server. Unlike the normal HTTP protocols that involve a Request/Response, the WS (Web Socket) protocol acts through a channel where information can be passed in both directions.
So what makes Web Sockets useful? Imagine that you want the server to send you data without requesting it. Say you want to be alerted when your server receives a new notification, or a progress update, or when someone visits your page. Before Web Sockets this was not easily possible, especially with HTTP because it requires you to send a Request before the server sends back a Response. But because we don’t know exactly when we will receive a notification or progress update, we wouldn’t know when to request the data to receive the update.
Web Sockets resolve this issue by allowing a more direct channel to be made from the client to the server. This channel allows messages to be sent from the server to the client or by the client to the server at any time. This way, servers can issue updates more immediately to clients connected to it.
Now — there was a HTTP technique called long-polling where we make a request, wait for it to time out, and then send another request until we receive something from the server. This was a workaround before Web Sockets existed. However, it is slower and sloppier than Web Sockets.
2. It’s Sophisticated
JavaScript was influenced by many languages when it was first invented: Self, Java, Perl, AWK, Scheme, and Hypertalk just to name a few. This makes it easier to branch into other languages if you already know JavaScript. For instance, transitioning from JavaScript to other C-based languages like Java, C#, and Python is not difficult. Furthermore, languages like PHP, Perl, Scheme, and Ruby, are not difficult to branch into either because they are also simple in nature. Languages like C and C++ may be a little more difficult, but if you know JavaScript there is still lots of transferrability.
Not all languages are created equal, but JavaScript seems to have a very nice balance between simplicity and it’s sophisticated roots. For these reasons, learning JavaScript is an excellent choice for beginners.
3. Rich Ecosystem
There are entire stacks that utilize JavaScript as it’s development language like Node.js and MongoDb. As a matter of fact JSON has influenced modern SQL databases like MySQL and Microsoft SQL.
JavaScript has a large development environment thanks to Node.js and it’s Node Package Manager. As of 2017, NPM has the largest package registry in the world with over 90,000 total packages. These packages are worthy of mention: webkit, grunt, colors, async, underscore, commander, express, mkdirp, moca, jslint, nodunit, jshint, and request. There is so much to say about each one of these packages that we can easily do an entire series on any one of them!
Moreover, Node is utilized by big web companies like Microsoft, LinkedIn, Google, Netflix, IBM, Walmart, and Yahoo.
Lastly, you can write your own applications in Node.js, Express.js, and MongoDB. You can mix and match them however you want. For instance, you can run Node.js and Express.js as your middleware server alongside either a Java Android UI or a Windows Mobile WPF as your front-end application. Here’s a nother example: use MongoDB as your back-end with a PHP middleware. JavaScript is no longer limited to just a HTML front-end.
4. It is IN-DEMAND!
JavaScript is a simple language, it’s fun, and it’s easy to learn. It’s driving web pages all over the internet. Github has compiled it’s undeniable rise over the years. See it for yourself!
5. It’s ADAPTIVE!
This is due, in part, to the fact that JavaScript was originally influenced by many languages. As a matter of fact, it was originally meant to be a scheme-like language. Scheme, which is a functional programming language, and is a dialect of Lisp. Although Scheme was syntactically simple and dynamic as a language, Java was exploding at the time.
Netscape created JavaScript and Brendan Eich was the father of JavaScript. During the time, Sun Microsystems (Java) was making a deal with Netscape. With pressure to close the deal with Sun, Brendan design the language to have Java-like syntax. However, underneath, it still resembled Scheme and Self.
This nature of JavaScript turned out to be a tremendous advantage when functional programming made a come back in the recent years. Couple this with JavaScript’s simplicity which allowed it to be easily picked up and developed for, and you have a formula for a very adaptive language.
6. It’s Future-Proof!
JavaScript is a cornerstone technology for the web. If you combine this with it’s undeniable rise since it’s birth, it’s rich development ecosystem, it’s simplicity, it’s adaptive nature, and WebGL you get a future proof formula.
7. It’s Fun & Simple
Many beginners question the use of learning HTML over something like WordPress, Wix, or a professionally-made website. The truth is, these individuals are blissfully ignorant.
Not only is HTML, CSS, and JavaScript simple, it is fun and easy to learn. You will save more time because you can change exactly what you want instead of working around a messy system and clicking through menus to find features that may not even exist.
Although it takes a little bit of time to pick up as a beginner, once true mastery is achieved in HTML, the sky is the limit! WordPress and the like can only take you so far. In order to harness the true power of HTML and all of it’s awesome opportunities, you must to learn it and understand it!
8. Web GL & Web GPU
The future of the web surfing will be an exciting place. We are seeing graphics applications emerging on websites straight from our web browsers. This power is delivered to us via HTML. With Web GL and Web GPU (in the future), JavaScript API’s can now leverage the power of GPU’s to create sophisticated applications and games. We can expect web sites to provide a truly immersive, interactive, and rich experience!
It is a very exciting time to know JavaScript.
Want More?
Join us: https://intully.com
Facebook: https://fb.com/intully
