JavaScript

What Is JavaScript?

JavaScript (JS) is a programming language that is mainly used in developing web applications. In the earlier days of the internet, there were only static, non-interactive web pages. The founder of the Mozilla Foundation realized the issue and worked dedicatedly on developing a programming language to make interactive web pages by manipulating the logical structure. This structure is known as the Document Object Model (DOM). Two programming languages inspired it: Java and Scheme (a minimalist dialect of Lisp). JS incorporated the best aspects of both the languages while still managing not only an intuitive syntax but also practical libraries & toolsets too.

What Makes JavaScript a Powerful Language?

In the world of programming, two different paradigms have become popular over time. One is object-oriented programming, where classes and methods interact through objects representing real-time relationships between them on an instance basis. Whereas in functional programming, there is no concept of shared state and mutable data. Instead, it focuses more on pure functions for a problem-solving purpose by only using first-order logic constructs, like lambda expressions or maps & filters, among others, as well as higher-order functions.

JavaScript supports both object-oriented programming paradigm and functional programming paradigm.

Along with the ability to support both programming paradigms, the JavaScript engine is the second most important component in the JS ecosystem, making it a powerful programming language. The JS engine can do just-in-time (JIT) compilation. As the name indicates, JIT complies with computer code at the time of execution, improves productivity, and saves a lot of storage space.

There are two important components of the JS engine: memory heap and call stack. Allocation of memory happens in memory heap, whereas a call stack keeps track of function calls. Some programming languages like C# can run multiple sets of instructions simultaneously, but JavaScript can’t do this as its engine has only one call stack, and hence, it is a single-threaded language. Being a single-threaded language means that JS can’t implement parallel programming, and to counter this limitation, design engineers have added a feature of asynchronous callbacks in JavaScript.

This feature allows the engine to take a set of instructions from the call stack, run it in the background and return the result through the event loop after executing the asynchronous code. This way, it gives JavaScript the ability to perform parallel programming despite being a single-threaded language.

JavaScript is also popular among programmers as a weird programming language. However, its ability to support programming paradigms and its innovative engine have made it a famous language for next-generation technologies. Numerous inventors working in the cloud, AI, and blockchain industries are relying on its support to develop their solutions and change the world.

Use of JavaScript in Crypto

In popular culture, the crypto industry is a huge ecosystem of blockchain-based solutions and tokens. Developers working in the industry aim to build products that can solve problems for end-users as other industries do with their innovations.

As JavaScript has a huge ecosystem of prebuilt UI/UX and front-end related solutions that make the work of crypto developers easier. Developers are using Web3.js libraries to connect the backend application with Ethereum via JavaScript which makes development faster because one does not need to build everything from scratch or use multiple languages, such as Solidity if there are already ready-made components available in one programming environment. It is also an essential component of lightning apps, a network built on the Bitcoin blockchain, and the Raiden network, an infrastructure built on Ethereum.

Although it is a latecomer, millions of developers have helped it a lot, and JavaScript is steadily paving its way into the crypto space.