Steve’s Hot JavaScript Training Commentaries – PART 1

SO, WHAT HAS HAPPENED WITHIN THE LAST TWO DAYS?

I have thought hard about what I should do to make my training easier to understand for those who are newer to web development. I had some people indicate that my tutorials are a little hard to understand, since they are related to concepts that they find new.

In our first getting started tutorial, we discussed about IDEs and web editors. Many of you many not understand exactly the difference.

AND WHAT IS AN IDE?

An IDE is a software environment where all your tools are in one place. There are several IDEs out there for different languages and the benefit of these tools are that you don’t have to be outside the software to do most tasks.

AND WHAT KIND OF TASKS DO YOU MEAN?

For example, one task would be to run your program. Another way to say this is to “execute your program”. They both do the same thing. Running your program means the same thing as if I were to launch a programs, such as Microsoft Word. This is the end stage, when your program has been finalized.

JavaScript in particular is a scripted based language, which means that I have to be in a program that runs it to make it run. This is as opposed to a full blown program, such as in the case of the Java programming language, which runs outside a program. In Java’s case, all you need is the Java Runtime Environment (a.k.a. JRE) to run your program.

You’ll find that some programs need certain technology for it to work. It basically utilized the functions of that technology, otherwise there is no way for it to work. It will say you need this or that in order to run this program, or so.

DO I HAVE TO USE VISUAL STUDIO? I’VE SEEN YOUR SCREENSHOTS ON THAT.

I have recently found an IDE that works on Windows, Mac, or Linux operating systems. The program is WebStorm by JetBrains. They have a trial version of their IDE. They have screenshots of the software on their site.

So, depending on your platform, you simply download the one for your operating system. I’ve used this program a while ago in the past and I’m thinking of switching from using Visual Studio’s IDE, which is still good for creating Windows based programs, or apps for the Windows Phone.

WHAT’S THIS ABOUT VISUAL STUDIO ANYWAY?

Visual Studio, as I mentioned is good if you want to create Microsoft Windows based programs, or if your web host has Windows hosting, you can serve ASP .Net pages, which is basically Microsoft’s answer to PHP, a server based scripting language. Again, I would still use Visual Studio if I wanted to create Windows Phone based apps, which at this time is a great market to get into for apps!

AND WHAT ABOUT THE AUTOCOMPLETION FEATURE IN AN IDE?

Autocompletion simply means that it completes a word for you when you’re typing it. Most programming editors don’t do this. I do know of some that do, though! If you are interested, I can add them as an update. This feature will make your writing your code faster and this especially works for Don’t Repeat Yourself (i.e. DRY) principles that others may here of these days. That means you don’t need be redundant if you feel you shouldn't have to!

SUMMARY

I created these tutorials in an attempt to explain my training even further. My original training should be good for those who may grasp the concept that I explained, however these commentaries will be to explain anything that is needed, so there exists no confusion! Not to mention, you can share tools that you have liked and used. As always, you can send any comments, questions, or suggestions. I will continue these commentaries until the next part of the JavaScript Hot Training series, so we are all on the same page. I look forward to see you in the next part!