JavaScript Tutorial
Javascript--what the heck is it? Is it a really difficult programming language that casual web designers should be afraid of? What is it used for? Hopefully we'll
be able to answer these questions for you and more in this tutorial
JavaScript has been around for several years now, in many different flavors. The main benefit of Javascript is to add additional interaction between the website
and its visitors with just a little extra work by the web developer. Javascript allows industrious web masters to get more out of their website than HTML and CSS can provide.
By definition, JavaScript is a client-side scripting language. This means the web surfer's browser will be running the script. The opposite of client-side is server-side, which occurs in a language like PHP. PHP scripts are run by the web hosting server.
There are many uses (and abuses!) for the powerful JavaScript language. Here are a few things that you may or may not have seen in your web surfing days:
- Clocks
- Mouse Trailers (an animation that follows your mouse when you surf a site)
- Drop Down Menus
- Alert Messages
- Popup Windows
- HTML Form Data Validation
Tutorial Overview
Before you begin this tutorial, you should have basic knowledge of HTML. Check out our Beginner and HTML tutorials to brush up on the basics.
This tutorial will cover the basics of JavaScript, from where to place your JavaScript all the way to making your own JavaScript functions. Also, there will be some good programming practice tips throughout this tutorial.
We recommend that you read a few lessons a day and practice what you have learned. This will help you to absorb the material more readily than if you blasted through the entire tutorial in one sitting!
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