Introduction to JavaScript Fundamentals I

JavaScript, often abbreviated as JS, is a high-level, multi-paradigm, and interpreted programming language that conforms to the ECMAScript standard.

It was initially developed for client-side scripting within web browsers to enhance the interactivity and functionality of web pages that HTML and CSS alone couldn't provide, by allowing them to dynamically change their content after they are loaded.

Nowadays, the usage of JavaScript extends way beyond web browsers, as it is also used for building complex web applications using frameworks like React and Angular, mobile and desktop applications using technologies like React Native and Electron, and server-side applications running in runtime environments like Node.js.

Learning objectives

In this module, you'll learn the core building blocks of programming in JavaScript: working with simple values, storing them, reading them, and making your script take decisions based on them.

This is the foundation for everything you'll do later in Node.js: from writing CLI tools, to processing files, to validating API payloads.

After completing this module, you will be able to:

• Read and write basic JavaScript values such as numbers, strings, and booleans.
• Execute JavaScript code using Node.js.
• Store and reuse values using variables.
• Make your script behave differently based on conditions.
• Combine conditions using logical operators.
• Read common Node.js runtime errors and locate the line of code that caused them.
• Manually test a script by printing intermediate values to the terminal.