JavaScript features, uses, advantages and disadvantages

JavaScript is used to extend the functionality of websites. The uses range from on-screen visual effects to processing and calculating data on web pages with ease,, as well as providing extended functionality to websites using third-party scripts,, among several other handy features. It is one of the most popular programming languages.

JavaScript

JavaScript is a dominant web development technology. It is a full-fledged programming language. It provides many unique features. It has been around for over 20 years now. It has become a favorite for many up-and-coming Web developers in recent years.

JavaScript is the most misunderstood language in the world. That may be because of the name, it has a prefix Java in its name, for which a few people think it has some relation with JAVA, but actually it is not. The most common misinterpretation is due to the second word in its name, which is Script. 

JavaScript is not a script to validate forms or make animations; it’s a real language, small and sophisticated. It’s not a subset of JAVA, it is a completely independent, flexible, super dynamic, object-oriented language.

JavaScript can not make any .exe, .dll, or any abstract class files. So, it throws errors and exceptions while executing only that particular path of the program. The frameworks such as Backbone, Ember, Angular, jQuery, and many more are developed on top of JavaScript & they are changing the old concepts of web development.

In case of languages such as JavaScript, where you don’t have to use any IDE, this approach helps you in proper line-by-line debugging. If any part of the same program is under construction, you can run the other flows of the program.

JavaScript advantages

JavaScript is worked into any type of web page. You do not need to change the file extension and re-work the page if JavaScript is added; JavaScript is not simple to work into existing sites only, but it is easy to learn. Its syntax is similar enough to English that most people can pick it up quickly.

It uses the DOM model that provides plenty of prewritten functionality to the various objects on the pages, making it a breeze to develop the script to solve a custom purpose. The code is executed on the user’s processor instead of the web server, thus saving bandwidth on the web server.

The speed is the language’s greatest advantage, as the code is executed on the user’s computer, the results and processing are completed instantly, depending on the task. It allows for a reduced load on the servers, which can be important for heavily-trafficked sites.

Third-party add-ons like GreaseMonkey enable JavaScript developers to write the snippets of JavaScript that can execute on desired web pages to extend their functionality. If you use the website & require a certain feature to be included, you can write it yourself & use an add-on like GreaseMonkey to implement it on the web page.

Any code functions can be run instead of having to contact the server and wait for an answer, So, JavaScript is very fast, It is simple to learn and implement, It plays nicely with the other languages and it can be used in many applications, Unlike PHP or SSI scripts and it can be inserted into any web page regardless of the file extension.

JavaScript is used inside the scripts that are written in other languages, such as Perl and PHP. It reduces the demand on the website server. It alone can be used across all software layers. It’s present on millions of websites. It is one of the languages most learned and recognized by developers.

JavaScript offers many special features in its functions. Wide browsers support it. It offers easy access to the document objects and their manipulation. It is relatively secure. There are no long download times, and there is no Plug-in support required.

Not only the objects, but also the functions can be stored. You can write codes for the function and get the required value; JavaScript handles them very nicely. You can write and run the code in the browser; there’s no need to download or install any complicated IDEs or compilers.

There are no classes in JavaScript; The prototypal inheritance does the same thing differently. It is more flexible than classical; It is suitable for dynamic languages. It is very simple to use and no need to use the new keyword.

A lot of people have a misconception that JavaScript is for browsers only, but it is a multi-platform language. Besides the browsers, JavaScript is used in Dashboards, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, PDF editors, Articulate, Yahoo Widgets, and a few embedded systems are also using JavaScript.

You can save time through code reuse and sharing with full-stack JavaScript. You can reduce the effort by reusing the parts of the code (or sharing libraries, templates, and models) on both the back and front end that are very close in terms of logic and implementation.

JavaScript is the most-used programming language. You don’t need to bear the additional expenses for costly licenses or subscriptions, as JavaScript tools are free or open source projects. Many tools are updated regularly and evolving fast due to the active community contributions. Instead of relying on a fixed set of technologies.

JavaScript is a very high-level language. You will not need to worry about the memory management & the segmentation faults. It is easy to share your creations with other people. You can create websites, scripts, or programs that are shared and run by sending a link easily.

With the advent of Node.js and Rhino, you can now do server-side development in JavaScript, making it a general-purpose web language. You don’t need to learn two languages to write web applications if you start with JavaScript.

JavaScript disadvantages

There are many security issues. JavaScript snippets, when appended onto the web pages, execute on the client servers, and they can be used to exploit the user’s system. While a certain restriction is set by modern web standards on the browsers, the malicious code can still be executed, complying with the restrictions set.

The code can be exploited for malicious purposes if it executes on the users’ computer. So, some people choose to disable JavaScript; JavaScript is interpreted differently by different browsers, whereas the server-side scripts will produce the same output. The client-side scripts can be a little unpredictable.

There is no standard support for JavaScript across the browsers, esp. DOM, the web page is useless if the script does not work, JavaScript may be disabled by the browser reading the HTML file, no control over this, and JavaScript can run slowly.

JavaScript can be easily exploited. The people with malicious intent can compromise JavaScript without much trouble. Many savvy users disable JavaScript because they know about its security flaws. So, the developers need to take care when coding so that the scripts they write are not too easily disrupted.

JavaScript isn’t always the same for all users, as some people disable JavaScript, but it can render differently depending on the user’s browser. These quirks can hamper the user’s experience on your website. You should test your scripts in multiple browsers & in several versions of those browsers before deploying your code.

Some developers think that the programmers who learn through JavaScript lack the critical thinking and problem-solving skills that programmer needs to be successful. Because of JavaScript’s fairly low bar to entry, JavaScript is a great place to start, but you need to ensure that you have relevant skills and can work in several languages.

JavaScript doesn’t have linkers because of the load and go delivery approach, so the compilation units are all combined in the common global space, which causes a few security issues. JavaScript has single inheritance only, and multiple inheritance is not possible.

There is no copy or equal method in JavaScript. The bit-wise operators in JavaScript convert the operand into a 32-bit signed integer and turn the result back to 64-bit floating point. So, bit-wise operations are slower here.

When you don’t really learn object-oriented programming with standard JavaScript, you can use the objects and make things seem object-oriented, but it is not object-oriented, and you can learn it much better with a language like Java.

JavaScript is a quirky language; many of those quirks will trip you up during development. Your code can be broken because of a line that is way down the page from the part that’s not behaving as expected. All languages have quirks, but JavaScript’s quirks are stranger & more harmful than those of many other popular languages.

There are many versions of the language. You can write code to target all JavaScript environments, but there’s a lot to keep track of if you want to do that. JavaScript won’t teach you how to deal with multi-threaded programming. Instead, you’ll learn how to deal with asynchronous programming.

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