Introduction

JavaScript is one of the most popular programming languages. JS is the top programming language, and it's more than twice as popular as Python.

JavaScript the ubiquitous language for the web, it's reached beyond the web.  It now runs inside of database engines, web servers, game consoles, and refrigerators. Backward compatibility is important when there is so much code depending on a language. However, ES6 has come to take it forward to the next level.

In this Javascript: Getting Started tutorial, you'll know the very basics of JavaScript and you'll be able to build simple programs for the web. No prior knowledge of programming is required for this course.

This Javascript: Getting started is for those who are completely new to programming. Also valuable for programmers who are just new to the JavaScript language.

Installing Development Software for Demo/Practice

In order to start working with Javascript, there's certain software that needs to be installed on our machines.

We need to have GIT, Node.js and an IDE, in our case it is Visual Studio Code.

Steps to check and install softwares

Step 1: To check GIT is installed, just type "git --version" in the command prompt if you are using a windows machine. On a Mac, you would go to a terminal window.

If you did not find GIT installed on your machine (when you see Error), install the download from https://git-scm.com/ both for windows and mac downloads are present (scroll down and check to your right side).

Step 2: Next is we need to install node package manager or npm package manager which comes with a . bundle in Node.js. To check node is installed, execute the command "npm --version". visit https://nodejs.org/en/ and install the LTS version when you see the error. At the time of this post, 16.13.1 is the LTS version.

Step 3: I will be using Visual Studio Code as an editor for all the demo. You can download that at code.visualstudio.com

Setting up project from GitHub

I have set up a sample "Hello World" project and that will be good to start with. It has everything that you need to start developing.

js-starter is the repository name in GitHub. Go to https://github.com/karthiktechblog/js-starter and click on clone or download. you may also clone the project in Visual Studio Code by using this URL https://github.com/karthiktechblog/js-starter.git

Inside the sample project, there is a file named package.json which contains the required dependency software to run the project. Go to the terminal window by clicking Terminal => New Terminal from the top menu or using the shortcut "ctrl + shift +".

Now, run "npm install" command which will install the lite server, version 2.5.4. Run "npm run start" in your terminal to start the server.

Now, we get Hello World, and you can see that the lite server is running on localhost port 3000.

JavaScript Getting Started: Table of contents

1. Introduction and Setting up a local environment
2. Variables and constants
3. Types and Operators
4. Program flow : conditions, comparision and different loops.
5. Parameters : Default, Rest ...Spread and templates
6. Functions
7. Objects and the DOM
8. Arrarys
9. Scope and Hoistings
10. Classes (Advance)

Summary

In this post, you learned JavaScript and how to kick start your learning journey along with me. Thanks for reading and in the next post, you will learn about variables and how to declare and use them.