JavaScript 101

Craig Spence 🦄

We do JS at

Cat Clague 🐹

Skye Simpson ☁️

What we're going to cover

⭐️ What is JavaScript?

⭐️ How does JavaScript work?

⭐️ Why is JavaScript so great?

⭐️ What can I do with JavaScript?

⭐️ Why is JavaScript not so great?

What is JavaScript?

JavaScript is THE language of the client-side web

It is a dynamically typed, event-driven, multi-paradigm programming language

It was traditionally used to create dynamic web-pages, but has since gone on to be used in everything from servers to satellites!

Often hated, very misunderstood, but pretty much ubiquitous, and very powerful!

Why is JavaScript great?

JavaScript is very easy to pick up, and very forgiving!

It can run almost anywhere, and does!

There is a massive community who do incredible things with the language, and a huge amount of material out there to learn!

You can find thousands and thousands of bits of JavaScript code on npm and reuse them to build complex applications!

Why is JavaScript Not great?

JavaScript is very easy to pick up, and very forgiving!

It is not the fastest language (but it's pretty fast)

It is untyped, so you can have some pretty weird bugs - but then there's TypeScript 😎

It has to always be backwards compatible - so old quirks and mistakes never go away!

What can I do with JavaScript?

Pretty much anything you can imagine!

Websites, applications, servers, IoT, rendering, music...

How does JavaScript work?

To start the workshop, go here: