1. Comparing JavaScript to Other Languages

2. Topics Why did we study JavaScript?
Does programming language choice matter?
Differences with other languages
Some Really Exotic languages
How do I decide what language to use?

3. Why Did We Study JavaScript?
Effective language for teaching all the basic computing concepts
Extremely useful for designing interactive web pages
Practical for you to apply even if not a CS major
Syntactically similar to several other languages
E.g.: C, C++, Java, PHP

4. Hello, World!
Typically, in any programming language, the first example you learn displays “Hello, World!”
Let’s use that as our Rosetta Stone for examining programming languages...

5. Does Programming Language Choice Matter?
Short answer: “Yes, but…”
Javascript:
document.write(“hello, world”); C:
main( ) { printf("hello, world"); }
Fortran77:
PROGRAM HELLO PRINT*, ‘hello, world‘ END
Lisp:
(defun helloworld () (print “hello, world") )
English:
Hello, world.
Spanish:
Hola mundo
French:
Salut le Monde
Greek:
Γεια σου κόσμε

6. Differences with other Languages
JavaScript borrows many elements from several, commonly-used languages, such as: C
C++
Java
PHP
It shares many syntactic ideas with each language (and they, with each other)

7. Differences with other Languages
The differences are worth noting (and we will come across them in the exercise), but there is enough similarity that you can cross the boundary easily
Some main differences:
Client-side vs. Server-side
Memory management
Type-handling
Type of object-oriented features (not covered)

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