Awakening of an anti-JavaScript activist (1)

Over the past few years, I have completely changed my attitude towards JavaScript.JavaScript has grown up.. I can assure that many JavaScript developers do not agree with what I mentioned earlier. They will say that JavaScript has always been a very powerful, mature, and deeply rooted language. Maybe they are right. In fact, as long as they are a complete programming language, they can write programs, including the abuse of BASIC. A language is really useful. On the one hand, it must have a strong ability to express itself, and on the other hand, it must have a large number of libraries and development tools. Obviously, the expression ability of JavaScript has long been okay. Even if the method of creating an object is a little unacceptable, it is not a problem. Until recently, some extremely important technologies to reverse the situation have emerged: jQuery, JSON, Node. js, and HTML5. JavaScript may have been a well-developed language before, but it is these important technologies (and others that are not mentioned here), making JavaScript a language that every developer knows.If you want to learn a new language next year, it must be JavaScript.

Unlimited Potential Node. js

The infinite potential of Node. js means that it may trigger a revolution in Web development.. Node. js is a framework used to build high-performance Web applications. Even massive requests can respond quickly and effectively. Although Node itself is an underlying framework that can be used to build any application, it is best suited to build Web servers. Its asynchronous event-driven model is undoubtedly more suitable for Web applications than the traditional request-response model.

There are two factors that make Node look promising. First, Google has set off a revolution in improving JavaScript performance. This does not mean that you can use the best JavaScript Engine anytime, anywhere (although this is also a good expectation ). But it is certain that Google really regards JavaScript performance as one thing without the worry of other competitors. In this way, Mozilla, Apple, Microsoft, Opera, and other browser developers are forced to enter the performance competition runway. As a result, the JavaScript engine we are using is faster than a few years ago, and we don't know how many times it is. We have the ability to run complex large Web applications.

Second, Node has a huge developer base. No matter what language is used on the server, JavaScript is rarely used on the client. Some may be "scissors and paste", while others may use JavaScript to make superb Ajax applications, while some may even implement full-featured applications, like Twitter or Gmail. However, the number of JavaScript developers is huge. Doug Crockford and other authors strongly advocate that JavaScript should be treated as a serious programming language-although it still has many disadvantages.

At that time, writing a Node application was still a rough job. After all, it was just an underlying library. Imagine writing code simply using JavaScript. Right, that's the feeling that Node is still a beta version. It cannot be compared with a mature Web development framework like Rails or Django. This situation will undoubtedly change. Some lightweight frameworks, such as Express, have emerged. I firmly believe that more Node-based full-featured frameworks will also emerge.

We have mentioned some advanced Web applications that are almost completely running in browsers. Those are nothing new. How old is Gmail? Google Maps? However, the client that uses JavaScript to write applications running in a browser is undoubtedly becoming more and more attractive. HTML5 continues to push up expectations for this trend.

HTML 5 is actually JavaScript

I don't know how many times it has been said,HTML5 is actually not much related to HTML. It is actually JavaScript.What changes does HTML have? But there are some new labels, and they are also easy to understand.The power of HTML5 is that you can use JavaScript to create these tags.. If there is no background code that uses Canvas to create an animation or game, or use it to visualize some data, this label is useless. Starting with the support for Canvas in the browser, I have seen hundreds of implementations of Asteroids (planetary games), which are all exercises that developers are familiar with this new feature. Some are rough, while others are exquisite. All of these are thanks to JavaScript.

As you can see,HTML5 is not a major improvement in the label language characterized by Angle brackets. Its essence is to give JavaScript more powerful capabilities.. The WebGL Library (currently not available) supports drawing real-time 3D images in the HTML5 canvas. The Location-Based Service (LBS) Application-basic configuration of mobile phones can be implemented in the browser Based on the geographical Location of HTML5. The persistent storage and offline functions lay the foundation for full-featured applications running in browsers, which are comparable to those of desktop applications. At present, even the experimental library that adds multi-touch events has appeared. None of these are actually JavaScript features. HTML5 only provides a stage for these advanced functions.

In a further step, the HTML5 browser Library Development Library has also made great progress. For a long time, JavaScript has always been the best choice for implementing dynamic effects in HTML. Two problems can be solved: browser compatibility, and direct DOM operations are too troublesome. JQuery makes these two problems disappear without a trace. This library has become the basic configuration of modern browser-based client development. But not just jQuery. Protovis and D3 allow you to directly create complex interactive data visualization effects in the browser. For the first time in history, the browser has become an important tool for displaying data.