Class 2 Prep
Before coming to Class 2, please complete the following tasks:
Javascript and the Browser
What is Javascript used for? The original (and still predominant) purpose of Javascript is to run inside the user's internet browser, allowing a webpage to interact with the user in fancy and elaborate ways. Today we will learn about Javascript in its natural habitat, the browser.
| Done | Task | Resource Type | Link | Time Estimate | Instructions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Read | Interactive Book | EloquentJS 12: Javascript and the Browser | 30 minutes | This chapter outlines a brief history of Javascript and its relationship to the web. | |
| Read | Interactive Book | EloquentJS 4: Data Structures: Objects and Arrays | 4 hours | Before moving on to see how Javascript works in the browser, you will need to learn about collections: arrays and objects. This chapter is a little intense: arrays are not very different from arrays or lists in other languages, but objects are a huge and gnarly topic in Javascript. For now, the most important takeaway about Javascript objects is simply that they allow you to create a larger piece of data by clustering together a few smaller pieces of data. | |
| Read | Interactive Book | EloquentJS 13: The Document Object Model | 3 hours | The D.O.M is a Javascript object representing all the HTML on the page as a big "tree" of elements. Any time you want to interact with the user in some fancy way, you will do so by writing Javascript code that inspects or modifies the D.O.M. in some way. |