What Is JavaScript?

Summary

This chapter introduced the basics of JavaScript, including what it can and can’t do, and how it relates to other programming and markup languages. Within the chapter, you saw that JavaScript frequently works closely with the markup languages HTML and CSS to provide the interactivity that today’s web users have come to expect. Windows 8 introduces a new level of importance for JavaScript by making it an equal partner in the application development life cycle.

You saw how to create a project in Visual Studio as well as how to create a simple JavaScript program. Part of that program involved learning where to place JavaScript code on a page. You also saw some key concepts about JavaScript, including that you can’t always rely on JavaScript being available on the user’s browser and that you should never rely on JavaScript for data security.

In the next chapter, you’ll look at some specifics of the syntax of JavaScript—including mundane yet important details about spacing, comments, and case sensitivity—before getting into more fun details like looping and conditionals. That will set a brief, yet firm foundation upon which you can build complex programs in later chapters.