JavaScript (JS)
is a dynamic computer programming
language. It
is most commonly used as part of web
browsers,
whose implementations allow client-side
scripts to interact
with the user,
control the browser, communicate asynchronously,
and alter the document
content that
is displayed. It
is also being used in server-side programming,
game development and the creation of desktop and
mobile applications. JavaScript is a prototype-based scripting language with dynamic typing and has first- class functions. Its syntax was influenced by C. JavaScript copies many names and naming conventions from Java, but the two languages are otherwise unrelated and have very different semantics. The key design principles within JavaScript are taken from
the Self andScheme programming
languages. It is a multi-paradigm language,
supporting object-oriented, imperative,
and functional
programming styles.
The application of
JavaScript to use outside of web pages—for
example, in PDFdocuments, site-specific
browsers,
and desktop
widgets—is
also significant. Newer and faster JavaScript VMs and
platforms built upon them (notably Node.js)
have also increased the popularity of JavaScript
for server-side web
applications.
On the client side, JavaScript was traditionally
implemented as an interpreted language
but just-in-time compilation
is now performed by recent (post-2012) browsers.
JavaScript was formalized in the ECMAScript language
standard and is primarily used as part of a web
browser (client-side
JavaScript).
This enables programmatic access
to computational objects within a host
environment. |
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