WebFund 2016W Lecture 2

Video

The video from the lecture given on January 12, 2016 is now available.

Notes

In-class Notes

Lecture #2
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JavaScript

* no declared types
  - strings
  - objects
  - arrays
  - numbers (floats)
  - boolean

With Node
 - asynchronous (non-blocking) I/O

Student Notes

• Administration Reminders
  • Office hours have been added.
  • Midterm date has been tentatively created.
  • Assignment #1 has been posted.

JavaScript: As a Language

• JavaScript has nothing to do with Java.
  • Why is it even called JavaScript then? At first it wasn't; it was developed as Mocha, changed to LiveScript and then finally renamed to JavaScript due to an agreement with Sun (acquired by Oracle).<ref name="Stackoverflow">[1]</ref>
• The only similarity between Java/JavaScript is some of the syntax, but that can be said for a lot of languages.

• What's different about JavaScript?
  • No declared data types; it's a "loose" language.
    • Instead of int i = 0, it's simply var i = 0.
  • There's seven data types<ref name="Stackoverflow">[https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Data_structures (examples in brackets).

]</ref>

• • • Boolean (true, false)
    • Number (3.1337, 1337, etc. There's no integer or long, everything is a float)
    • String ("Dave")
    • Symbol
    • Object
    • Null
    • Undefined