JavaScript has a lot of haters out there. It has received a lot of criticism on grounds of its Document Object Model (DOM), its lack of modules, its way of handling methods on objects as many others. Despite all the hate, JavaScript is one of the powerful and flexible programming languages out there.
You can do almost everything with JavaScript. Don’t get me wrong; not everything, but almost everything. And that makes it good enough. In case you were wondering, here are some of the things you can do with JavaScript language:
Why should you learn Javascript?
Front-end web development
Many websites out there have some sort of JavaScript code, especially when it comes to handling user inputs and validation. When used along with HTML and CSS, JavaScript creates the most dynamic and interactive pages. When it comes to beautiful front-end development, JavaScript is the go-to language.
Also Read: Top 5 Best Modern JavaScript Frameworks for Web and App Development
Building web apps
Web apps are like websites, but a little bit better. They are more responsive. In case of Progressive Web Apps (PWAs), they can be assessed on browsers, as well as installed on mobile and accessed via the home screen, just like a mobile application. JavaScript comes with frameworks and libraries tailored to making PWA development such as AngularJS, Vue.js, React, and ExpressJS.
Backend web development
People argue that JavaScript cannot be used for backend web development. Although it is not ideal, the back-end is, in fact, feasible with JavaScript. One testament to this is Node.js. Node.js has contributed both to backend and increasing the performance of the front-end. Server-side web development has been conquered.
Mobile App development
It is now possible to write applications for mobile with JavaScript. Although JavaScript was initially created for the client-side, there’s no wonder it has become somewhat dynamic over the years and has transitioned into so many other areas, with mobile being included. Not just PWAs. Native mobile applications are within reach, especially for the Android and IOS Operating systems. An impressive way to this is by using PhoneGap, where one can easily build hybrid apps using CSS and HTML and JavaScript. PhoneGap is a bridge between your mobile and the web application codes. Another framework which helps with a similar purpose includes Ionic.
Also read: 5 Best Frameworks for Cross-Platform App development
Deep learning
Although Python is hailed as the ideal language for deep learning purposes, it’s about time JavaScript rose up in the ranks. Libraries such as brain.js, ConvNetJS, deeplearn.js help someone train neural networks in the browser. Think of the many projects that could utilize this technology. Synaptic and Mind are other libraries for node.js to train fast neural architectures.
Machine Learning
One cannot speak about machine learning with JavaScript without mentioning TensorFlow.js. It is one of the most popular machines learning JavaScript libraries out there. Ml.js is another library which gives machine learning tools for Node.js and browsers. Machine Learning algorithms such as K-mean clustering, simple linear regression, support vector machines, K-Nearest Neighbor, Decision tree, Random forest etc are also supported.
Also Read: 5 Best Open Source Frameworks For Machine Learning
Natural language processing
Natural is a Node.js library for Natural Language Processing (NLP) using JavaScript. It provides support for phonetics, classification, string similarity etc.
Desktop
JavaScript gets more magical. It is the boss of the web, and it is now transitioning into a desktop. With the advent of Electron, developers can now use JavaScript, including other web technologies like HTML and CSS in order to make programs meant for the desktop, which will run using famous operating systems like Windows, Mac Os, and even Linux.
Apparently, JavaScript is a one-for-all language. Once you master it, it gets easier to build software meant for several platforms. It has almost limitless potential. Love it or hate it, JavaScript is here to stay. The numbers/statistics speak for themselves. JavaScript was voted the most popular language by developers in the 2018 Stack Overflow survey. If you want to learn a new language this year, JavaScript should be considered.
