ptg16476052LESSON 17
Introducing JavaScript
JavaScript is a programming language that’s used to turn web pages into
applications. JavaScript is used to manipulate the contents of a web page
and to allow users to interact with web pages without reloading the page.
This is the first of three lessons in a row on JavaScript. In this lesson, I
explain how JavaScript works and how to use it in your pages. In the next
lesson, “Using jQuery,” I discuss jQuery, a library that makes it much sim-
pler to work with JavaScript, and then in the following lesson, “JavaScript
Examples,” I’ll walk you through some real world examples. In this lesson,
you learn about the basics of JavaScript by exploring the following topics:
n What JavaScript is
n Why you would want to use JavaScript
n The <script> tag
n An overview of the JavaScript language
n The browser as a programming environment
n Using JavaScript to handle browser events