This post is inspired by all the comments I’ve seen this week about JS in the enterprise. I would have never imagined this 10 years ago, but JavaScript is now pretty much ubiquitous. Here are a few reasons why you need to paying attention to JavaScript if you aren’t already, and why you should definitely not write it off.
First, I think one of the major reasons for JavaScript’s ubiquity is that JavaScript is approachable. It is relatively easy for beginners to learn JavaScript, and powerful enough for advanced users to build complex and reliable systems.
Second, why you need to pay attention, JavaScript is everywhere.
You can now use JavaScript to develop on virtually any platform: client side applications, server side logic, embedded chips/IoT devices, manage build scripts and dependencies, and more.
This doesn’t mean you’ll use the exact same code in every case, rather that you can use the same skill set – JavaScript Development – to deliver solutions across multiple paradigms.
The Client Side
JavaScript can be used to power client side apps/user interfaces, and user interactions on numerous platforms and devices.
Web
Of course JavaScript powers the web, this is a given. JavaScript is the primary scripting language for all web browsers. I won’t focus on this much b/c it’s already well known.
Mobile
JavaScript can also be used to power mobile applications that are natively installed on a device.
- Apache Cordova/PhoneGap – You can build natively installed apps with web technology using PhoneGap or Cordova. PhoneGap is Adobe’s branded distribution of Cordova, but from the developer’s perspective, they are basically the same thing. Your app runs within a webview on the mobile device, and you build your user interface the same way you you build a dynamic web application. Your user interface is implemented in HTML, styled with CSS, and all interactivity is created with JavaScript.
- React Native – JavaScript powered web apps don’t just have to be inside of a a web view. The React Native framework gives developers the ability to write their application using JavaScript and declarative UI elements, and results in a native application running on the mobile device. The logic is interpreted JavaScript at runtime, but everything that the user interacts with (all UI elements) is 100% native, providing a very high quality user experience, and it is now available for both iOS and Android applications.
- Unity 3D – You can even develop rich & immersive mobile 3D simulation or gaming experience, entirely powered by JavaScript using the Unity 3D engine. **These can be web, desktop, or mobile, but is often used in mobile gaming.
- NativeScript – Framework for building cross-platform native iOS, Android and Windows mobile apps using JavaScript.
Desktop
Yup, desktop apps are not left out of the mix. Most desktop solutions fall into a category similar to Apache Cordova, where the end results is a web view that has access to lower level APIs, whose content is developed with web based technology.
- Electron – Node.js + Chromium desktop app container from GitHub
- app.js – Node + Chromium for a desktop app container
- nw.js – Another framework for Node +Chromium for a desktop app container
- CEF – The Chromium Embedded Framework – a framework for embedding the guts of the chrome browser inside of a desktop app.
… and more… I know Microsoft has a solution for building Windows apps purely out of HTML/JS, and there are more solutions out there that I am forgetting.
In fact, some of my favorite desktop tools, such as Slack, Atom and VS Code are actually based on web technology and implemented in HTML/JS. Heck, even Photoshop can be scripted and extended with the generator extensibility layer or have a customized user interface in HTML/JS with design spaces.
The Server Side
Most obviously Node.js – a JavaScript runtime buit on Chrome’s V8 JavaScript Engine – has made huge inroads into server side development and the enterprise. Node.js, powered by frameworks like express.js or loopback.io makes server side development and complex enterprise apps with JavaScript possible.
IoT
Pretty much everything that doesn’t fall in the categories above falls in here. You can develop headless apps that run on Arduino, Raspberry Pi or other small boards completely using JavaScript, you can manage infrastructure and information flow of IoT sensors using JavaScript, you can write on-chip programs for embedded systems using JavaScript, you can control robots with it, and you can even power media-centric connected TV experiences using JavaScript.
Like I said… It’s everywhere.
Ecosystem
It’s not just about where you can build and run JavaScript for your applications. JavaScript has a massive and thriving developer ecosystem.
JavaScript is the #1 most active language on GitHub in both the total number of active repositories and total number of active pushes/commits.
Here are some stats that show the magnitude of growth and adoption for Node.js/npm.js alone. NPM stats currently shows a total of 186,946 packages available for download, 94,978,032 package downloads in the last day, and 2,451,734,737 package downloads in the last month.
Node.js adoption is massive, and is still growing.
Graph explains IBM's focus on Node.js and Strongloop. 2.42 Billion @npmjs pkgs in 30 days! http://t.co/snDt88HQC5 pic.twitter.com/nRMwYyKmdo
— Rod Boothby (@rod11) September 10, 2015
This doesn’t mean that JavaScript is the best language at everything. It also doesn’t meant that you can take a single piece of source code and run it in every device/context imaginable.
It means that you can use your skills in JavaScript to develop for just about any kind of device/context out there. It’s not going to be write once, run everywhere, rather in the words of the React.js team: learn once, write everywhere.
