Javascript and the MEAN Stack – Features of the Javascript Language – History of Javascript

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Javascript and the MEAN Stack – Features of the Javascript Language – History of Javascript

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343-Term-Slides

CSCE 343 Programming Languages Term Project Slides

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Javascript and the MEAN Stack

Steven Bock December 10th, 2014

Features of the Javascript Language

  • Functional paradigm
  • Ability to pass functions as values
  • Dynamically typed
  • Mostly interpreted, but can be compiled in some instances

History of Javascript

  • JS started in 1995 by Netscape
  • Originally was meant for client side scripting of simple user initiated events
  • Maintained by ECMA International as ECMAScript standard
  • Expanded to other web browsers around 1997
  • Fell out of favor for a while around 1999-2000

What happened?

This guy happened

  • In 1998, the Department of Justice sued Microsoft over alligations that the company had used its substantial market share in the computing space to upend and effectively destroy competing technologies
  • One of the issues at hand were Windows-specific implementations of both Java and Javascript
  • MS Java Virtual Machine and JScript
  • This mess resulted in Javascript falling out of favor for a few years in fear of Microsoft potentially controlling the language

Server-side Javascript

Why now?

  • Most modern computers have web browsers shipped with them
  • Just-in-time compilation techniques to improve O(n) runtime efficiencies
  • Entire operating systems designed to pull data from the Internet at all times

The MEAN Stack

MEAN is an acronym

  • MongoDB - JSON/dynamic schema based DBMS
  • Express.js - Javascript based webserver
  • AngularJS - Javascript controller framework created by Google
  • Node.js - Server-side Javascript runtime based on Google Chrome's V8 JS engine

Example MEAN code (from Express)

//import express server
var express = require('express');

//decalre app container variable
var app = express();

//define root HTTP GET request
app.get('/', function(req, res){
	res.sendFile(__dirname + '/index.html');
});

//Event listener
app.listen(3000, function(){
	console.log("Express server listening on port 3000...");
});

Advantages and Disadvantages of Javascript on the Server

Advantages

  • Portablility
  • Ability to learn the lanugage
  • Ease of use

Disadvantages

  • Scalability
  • Readability
  • Depth of what can be done in JS
  • Reputation of the JS platform
  • Platform stability

LIVE DEMO

Any questions/comments?

All of this code is on GitHub

THE END

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