Execute this: Array(16).join(‘hero’-1) + “Batman”;
So proud! Joke courtesy of Codecademy
Okay, just so we’re clear, HTML is a markup language - a system for tagging text files so styles, e.g., fonts and colours and all the other things to do with presentation, can be applied (using CSS). At least that’s what HTML was when I went to work as a nanny in France. Then I came back to the table and found the web standards people had been casually grooming HTML into a superhero superset of its old self, called HTML5 (older pages will continue to work even as browsers move into a sexier future).
Really, a lot has changed. When people say HTML5, they actually tend to mean markup, CSS3, JavaScript, and a bunch of new browser technologies. That’s structure, presentation, and behaviour all in one little mouthful.
In a sense, HTML5 does pretty much what its lamer self manages on an ordinary day. Sure, there are some extra bells and whistles, but it only really gets exciting when you embrace the expanded definition of HTML5. Like the Avengers, HTML5 teams up to get stuff done.
Assemble HTML5, and you have the markup and application programming interfaces (APIs) to create powerful web applications that behave and feel like their desktop cousins, but have broader horizons due to the growing array of web-enabled devices. A large part of the HTML5 specification has already been implemented (it’s a work in progress), and enthusiastically received. There’s no real doubt at this stage that HTML5 is quickly taking the Web into a near future, a future without the foe of all web users: Download plug-in prompts (No, I won’t / can’t / am afraid to). And it couldn’t happen without the big guy: Hulk JavaScript.
JavaScript is the only language you can use in the web browser to interact with HTML5 technologies. That’s just how things have evolved. JavaScript really is the language of the Web, and, as such, it can’t be ignored.
Bottom line: If you, like me, want to learn to code for the Web, then JavaScript is where it’s at. Don’t you feel excited?
