JavaScript is a programming language that can be included on web pages to make them more interactive. You can use it to check or modify the contents of forms, change images, open new windows and write dynamic page content. You can even use it with CSS to make DHTML (Dynamic HyperText Markup Language). This allows you to make parts of your web pages appear or disappear or move around on the page. JavaScripts only execute on the page(s) that are on your browser window at any set time. When the user stops viewing that page, any scripts that were running on it are immediately stopped. The only exceptions are cookies or various client side storage APIs, which can be used by many pages to store and pass information between them, even after the pages have been closed.
Scripting languages are often used for performing repetitive tasks. they do not usually go into the depths of complex programs, such as thread and memory management. They may use another program to do the work and simply tell it what to do. They often do not create their own user interfaces, and instead will rely on the other programs to create an interface for them. This is quite accurate for JavaScript. We do not have to tell the browser exactly what to put on the screen for every pixel (though there is a relatively new API known as canvas that makes this possible if needed), we just tell it that we want it to change the document, and it does it. The browser will also take care of the memory management and thread management, leaving JavaScript free to get on with the things it wants to do.
Object Oriented Programming (OOP) refers to using self-contained pieces of code to develop applications. We call these self-contained pieces of code objects, better known as Classes in most OOP programming languages and Functions in JavaScript. We use objects as building blocks for our applications. Building applications with objects allows us to adopt some valuable techniques, namely, Inheritance (objects can inherit features from other objects), Polymorphism (objects can share the same interface—how they are accessed and used—while their underlying implementation of the interface may differ), and Encapsulation (each object is responsible for specific tasks).
Objects can be thought of as the main actors in an application, or simply the main “things” or building blocks that do all the work. Objects are everywhere in JavaScript since every component in JavaScript is an Object, including Functions, Strings, and Numbers. We normally use object literals or constructor functions to create objects.
Encapsulation refers to enclosing all the functionalities of an object within that object so that the object’s internal workings (its methods and properties) are hidden from the rest of the application. This allows us to abstract or localize specific set of functionalities on objects.
Inheritance refers to an object being able to inherit methods and properties from a parent object (a Class in other OOP languages, or a Function in JavaScript).
Both of these concepts, encapsulation and inheritance, are important because they allow us to build applications with reusable code, scalable architecture, and abstracted functionalities. Maintainable, scalable, efficient.
Tetris game created by Jake Gordon : https://github.com/jakesgordon/javascript-tetris
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