Summary

In this chapter, we took some time to build a foundation of knowledge that will frame the rest of this book. We began with a historical overview and then examined the relationship between ECMAScript and JavaScript. We then moved on and explored JavaScript by accessing the developer tools of various browsers. Following a hands-on activity and writing a bit of JavaScript with the browser developer tools, we ended this chapter with an overview of JavaScript capabilities. This included DOM manipulation, local data storage, form validation, and other examples to get us into the right mindset when it comes to thinking about the possibilities of working in JavaScript.

In the next chapter, we will explore how to work with JavaScript in much greater detail by using an integrated development environment (IDE) and how to examine the syntax rules of JavaScript. We'll look much more deeply into the web browser as one of a variety of JavaScript runtimes. We'll also explore the use of browser development tools in more detail and get hands on with manipulating both browser elements and additional attributes associated with them.