The programming language of the Web - And the Oscar goes to…?!
Tags: javascript, programming, softwareengineering, blog
Published: 2023-01-25 23:16:44

In one of the previous issues, we briefly browsed over the results of our survey on the state of development environments and their similarity with another important research. According to that research, JavaScript is by far the most popular and most demanded <a href="https://codingforspeed.com/hottest-programming-languages/" title="Hottest Programming Languages">programming language</a>.

Let’s find out why.

<h3>The programming language of the Web</h3>
Did you know there are over 1.8 billion websites worldwide, and <a href="https://helloacm.com/javascript-function-to-convert-hex-string-to-ascii-characters-hexadecimal/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">JavaScript</a> is used on 95% of them on the client side? It is safe to say that everyone is highly dependent on JavaScript. After all, without it, Netflix, YouTube or Google Docs would not work. 😱

Furthermore, nearly every computing device used today has JavaScript interpreters installed on them and in active use.

So what made JavaScript so famous?

<h4>Event-based programming</h4>
Event-based or event-driven <a href="https://codingforspeed.com/why-should-you-try-pair-programming/" title="Why should you try pair programming?">programming</a> is undoubtedly one of the essential JavaScript features. This programming paradigm focuses on events and waits for user interaction, such as mouse click or key press, before executing the code. The main loop usually listens for events; after an event is detected, it triggers a function.

<h4>Easy setup</h4>
JavaScript makes life easier. In other words, if you have a web browser, you have a <a href="https://codingforspeed.com/what-the-dev-container/" title="What the dev container!">development environment</a> ready for coding. Simple as that. But if you want to take it further, you can use an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) to write JavaScript. Not only can IDEs debug or format your code, but they also make collaboration easier and use many different extensions that can be quite helpful when coding.

<h4>Node.JS</h4>
Node.JS is a runtime <a href="https://codingforspeed.com/cloud-dev-envs-the-future-is-here-and-its-bright/" title="Cloud Dev Envs: The Future is Here and It’s Bright">environment</a> that executes JavaScript code outside a web browser. It also enables developers to use JavaScript for server-side scripting. The main idea behind Node.JS is "JavaScript everywhere". Simply put, it means unifying web application development around a single programming language, eliminating the need for a different language for server-side and client-side scripts.

<h4>Community</h4>
JavaScript definitely has one of the largest communities among <a href="https://codingforspeed.com/what-is-literate-programming/" title="What is literate programming?">programming</a> languages. With everything mentioned above, no wonder its community keeps growing every day. Additionally, JavaScript is easy to understand and learn, making it one of the best languages to learn, even if you don’t have any coding knowledge or experience.

In short, JavaScript is great to use on the web, it’s easy to learn, and it pairs well with HTML and CSS, to name only a few. It enables users to build highly responsive user interfaces, prevents annoying page reloads, and can even fix support issues for CSS.

[caption id="attachment_748" align="alignnone" width="450"]<img src="https://codingforspeed.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/what-is-the-worlds-most-popular-language-javascript.jpg" alt="What is the world&#039;s most popular language? Javascript" width="450" height="338" class="size-full wp-image-748" /> What is the world's most popular language? Javascript[/caption]

Reposted to [Blog](https://codingforspeed.com/the-programming-language-of-the-web-and-the-oscar-goes-to/)