What is Javascript used for | What is ES6 Javascript | Java vs Javascript

In this first javascript tutorial, you will learn

• What is javascript and where it can be applied

• What is difference between java and javascript

• What is ES6 javascript

• Getting tools required for JS

• First HelloWord program

What is Javascript used for

For client side web development, three languages HTML, CSS and Javascript are mandatory. If an experienced programmer is asked, "What is Javascript". He simply replied, "It’s just a client side language". Although he is technically correct but that’s not it.

Today use of JS is lot more than it used to be. It evolved a lot. Along with client side programming, now it is used in server side as Node.js. All the server side tasks that are performed using php, C#, java, can be performed now using nodejs. Nodejs covers all back-end espects.

Now you can develop a full fledge web application using javascript. For front end, you can use any javascript framework like React, Express JS, JS Angular, Election, Vue JS or tensorFlow.js with html and CSS. For backend use nodejs.

Javascript is gaining its popularity and becoming more popular with every single day.

Java Vs Javascript

As there is no similarity between car and carpet. Exactly there is no similarity between java and javascript at all. Java is server side language whereas JS is used for client side programming.

What is ES6 / ES7

After creation of javascript, it needed to standardize it. For this, European Computer Manufacturing Association introduced first version of ECMAScript ES1. With the passage of time, new ES versions were introduced with addition of new features. ES6 features are class, object, arrow function, map, foreach.

Getting all tools required for JS

Nodejs

Download and install Nodejs. I recommend Node LTE (Long Term Support) version to download. Once nodejs is installed, NPM is also installed. NPM is node package manager used to install packages.

Editor

Most popular editors are VSCode, sublime, atom. We will use VSCode. Download and install editor.

Now go head, take up your keyboard and start coding with us.

HelloWord Program

Open Visual Code Studio, create a folder and create a new JS file "HelloWord.js". It is a simple program that shows "Hello Word!" output.

console.log('Hello Word!');

Now start terminal in VS Code from View -> Terminal. Switch to the file location and run our first program by following command

node HelloWord.js

Output: Hello Word!