six reasons to learn javascript

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Happy Hacking Day 6 reasons everybody should learn JavaScript Otto Kekäläinen Helsinki 2.5.2013 Hello, I'm Otto and I work for Seravo, a company specialised in open source. Our customers are companies and public sector organisations that want to use open source software as much as possible. We enable them to do that by selecting, installing and administering the software and in general by taking the responsibility that everything runs smoothly. We also enhance and develop software according to our customer needs and nowadays most of that is done using HTML5 technologies and a lot of JS both on the client and server side. Personally I like the JS ecosystem a lot and today I am here to present you 6 compelling reasons why you should learn JS, or learn more JS if you already know some.

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Page 1: Six reasons to learn JavaScript

Happy Hacking Day

6 reasons everybody should learn JavaScript

Otto KekäläinenHelsinki 2.5.2013

Hello, I'm Otto and I work for Seravo, a company specialised in open source. Our customers are companies and public sector organisations that want to use open source software as much as possible. We enable them to do that by selecting, installing and administering the software and in general by taking the responsibility that everything runs smoothly.

We also enhance and develop software according to

our customer needs and nowadays most of that is done using HTML5 technologies and a lot of JS both on the client and server side.

Personally I like the JS ecosystem a lot and today I

am here to present you 6 compelling reasons why you should learn JS, or learn more JS if you already know some.

Page 2: Six reasons to learn JavaScript

1. JavaScript is easy

If you are about to learn something new, you'll be grateful if it is easy, right? You're time learning it will feel useful as you'll quickly reach a skill level where you actually can do some real world things.

Compared to other programming languages

JavaScript is easy. You don't need any specific integrated development environment and you'll be able to immediately run it without any compiling. The syntax is straight-forward and there is no need for complex variable definitions or any other up-front work. You can just immediately start coding features you want your software to do.

JavaScript is so easy, that I even recommend it to

people who have no programming skills at all and who just want to learn some programming to understand a little bit about how computers work and develop their so called computational thinking skills.

Page 3: Six reasons to learn JavaScript

JavaScript vs C#var x = 7, y = 5;

console.log('x+y:' + (x+y));

console.log('x-y:' + (x-y));

console.log('x*y:' + (x*y));

console.log('x/y:' + (x/y));

.

.

.

.

..

.

.

.

using System;

class Program { public static void Main() { int x, y, result; float floatresult;

x = 7; y = 5;

result = x+y; Console.WriteLine("x+y: {0}", result);

result = x-y; Console.WriteLine("x-y: {0}", result);

result = x*y; Console.WriteLine("x*y: {0}", result);

floatresult = (float)x/(float)y; Console.WriteLine("x/y: {0}", floatresult); }}

Here is JavaScript compared to C++.

You can immediately see how JavaScript is simpler. And in this case the simplicity does not mean it would have less features. No, it is just that natty-gritty details are handled automatically in JavaScript so you don't have to.

JavaScript is designed to be a high-level language

which makes the coder very productive and able to achieve a lot in a little time.

And if you ever need to learn some other

programming language like Java, C++ or PHP, those will feel familiar to you when you master JavaScript, since there are many similarities in these languages. So, it is not just that JavaScript is easy in itself, but later it will also make other languages easier to learn!

Page 4: Six reasons to learn JavaScript

2. JavaScript is versatile

Even if JavaScript is easy, it is not oversimplified nor is it restricted to one single programming style or paradigm. You can use JavaScript in many ways.

With JavaScript you can do traditional procedural

programming or you can do event based programming.

Your code can be flat or you can do it object oriented.

You can even use it to do functional programming. JavaScript is versatile because it does not force a

style on you. However if you don't already have favourite style, with JavaScript you will be inclined to to follow an object-oriented and event based way, which certainly is a good style which will take you far and fast.

Page 5: Six reasons to learn JavaScript

3. JavaScript is open source

Reason number two was versatile because JS gives you technical freedom. But that is not enough, you also want freedom in legal terms, and in every other way too, so that you can build solid businesses using the technology.

JavaScript itself is made as an open standard called

ECMAScript and anybody can implement the specification without restrictions. The best and most popular JavaScript engines are open source and all related development tools are open source.

There is also an ever growing mass of libraries. That

is really important, as it enables you to concentrate on making new cool things instead of reinventing the wheel.

Page 6: Six reasons to learn JavaScript

4. JavaScript is universal

The concept of universal code has been a dream for for a long time. Write once, run everywhere. JavaScript might actually make this reality. Write once, run everywhere.

If in some case the code cannot run flawlessly

somewhere, JavaScript is at least an universal language which you can use everywhere. Learn once, use everywhere

Page 7: Six reasons to learn JavaScript

✓any web browser✓in many user interface components

in NoSQL queries✓✓independently with Node.js ✓shell scripts with #!/usr/bin/env node

Everybody knows that JavaScript is the native language in browsers and you can use JavaScript to do website user interfaces that will work on any browser without any plug-ins.

With Node.js you can also use JavaScript to write the

website back-end or any kind of server or actually any kind of application, even apps that have nothing to do with browsers.

If a system has Node.js, you can also as a system

administrator choose to write your shell scripts in JavaScript.

Today JavaScript can be found built-in in many

places outside web browsers. For example Gnome, the most popular Linux desktop environment, has a lot of JavaScript in its UI. Another example are NoSQL databases, as most of them have JavaScript built-in into their query procedures.

Page 8: Six reasons to learn JavaScript

5. JavaScript is in demand

It's not just only that JavaScript can be used everywhere. It is also that it is used everywhere.

And because of that fact, there is a huge demand for

programmers with JavaScript skills. We looked at 30 job announcements for programmers and SW developers at mol.fi this morning and 21 of them mentioned as a requirement either JavaScript directly or some JavaScript library like jQuery or Angular.js.

To all students in the IT field here today I'd like to

make this very clear: if you don't have JavaScript skills by the time you graduate, you will not be ready for the job market.

Hands up, how many of you seek a career as a

programmer? Who of you are fluent in JavaScript? Who has now decided to develop their JavaScript skills? The last reason to learn JS on my list is..

Page 9: Six reasons to learn JavaScript

6. Because you'll have to anyway

If you don't learn JavaScript now, you'll have to learn it at some point in the future anyway.

We already live in a connected world where the

Internet plays a central role in both business, science, entertainment and politics. In a form or another, everything has or will very soon have a web presence, and the web means the browser, and the browser means running JavaScript.

Today Antti from Intel talked about HTML5. It may

very well be that in the future everything is HTML5, which means JavaScript. There might still be left some other technologies too, but we can be absolutely sure that there will be no job positions for programmers that would not have anything with JavaScript to do.

So, eventually you'll have to learn JavaScript anyway.

Learn it now so you can master it in the future.

Page 10: Six reasons to learn JavaScript

Learn JavaScript because it's1. easy2. versatile3. open source4. universal5. in demand6. because you'll have to anyway

So to conclude... (read out loud)

Page 11: Six reasons to learn JavaScript

Start today!

Learn and practice: codecademy.com

Read online: eloquentjavascript.net

Go to codeacademy.com and sign up for their interactive online courses on JavaScript. Or if you like to learn by reading, check out the excellent book Eloquent JavaScript by Marijn Haverbeke which is also available online.

Page 12: Six reasons to learn JavaScript