Defining JavaScript

What is JavaScript?

Almost everyone who has ever learned to code has used MDN, a directory of resources for developers created by Mozilla. It's pretty cool and pretty thorough. But when you first look something up on MDN, you wonder are they even speaking English?

If you visit MDN, you will be greeted with this definition of JavaScript.

What in the living heck!? If you are anything like me when I first read this, I understood "is" and "programming language". Beyond that, no comprendo.

Let's check out another example from Jeff Delaney at Fireship.io. I suggest stopping 10 seconds in.

What the hell does any of that even mean?! You lost me at the first sentence.

We definitely need something easier, let's go to W3Schools, a great beginner-friendly resource for all things web development. Check out their definition of JavaScript.

This is MUCH easier to understand but it also kinda tells me nothing.

• What is a programming language anyway?
• Why is this language for the web?
• How does JavaScript update and change HTML and CSS?
• Why does it need to manipulate data?
• So many questions.

I found that when you're learning to code, most resources are either too technical or too basic.

The FriendlyJS definition of JavaScript 🐶

The JavaScript language is a lightweight, high-level, dynamic, prototype-based, and multi-paradigm programming language. It features first-class functions and supports object-oriented, imperative, and declarative (e.g., functional) programming styles.

JavaScript is either interpreted or just-in-time compiled, and it operates in a single-threaded, non-blocking event loop. It also includes garbage collection for memory management.

While primarily a scripting language for web development, JavaScript is versatile and finds applications in non-browser environments.

Let's take this shit one word at a time. Let's turn 🔥to 🐕 together.