Getting Started

Getting Started
Introduction


Learning a programming language is a daunting task for anyone who hasn't learnt one before. One of the biggest problems is trying to do too much too soon. If you don't have a firm grasp of the basics then you will soon be floundering out of your depth and wonder why you thought to try programming in the first place.
Taking things slowly means that you will not be producing the really fancy scripts that you want for quite some time. Of course even the most simple piece of Javascript code can be useful.
Another thing that confuses many beginners is that programmers use what is almost a foreign language when talking about programming. Terms such as "variable", "function", "object" and so forth don't have just their regular English meanings but also sometimes different and quite specific meaning to programmers. It is impossible to avoid using such terms in introducing you to programming as the terminology is something that you need to know in order to look up further information in various books and references. Don't worry though because whenever I start using "computer speak" I will also explain in plainer English what the terminology means as well as giving examples so you can see for yourself exactly what it means. You'll also find the terms in the Glossary so that you can look up the meaning there if you missed the earlier description.
In the tutorials that follow, no previous programming knowledge is needed. The tutorials will introduce you step by step to both programming and the Javascript programming language. We will start with programming basics and gradually build on this in small steps to cover what you need to know to be able to create your own Javascripts from scratch that will do what you want them to do.
Note that there are now two tutorial series for beginners, one that introduces modern JavaScript and the other that looks at a more classical approach to JavaScript. The modern series is also intended for people who already know JavaScript to update their approach.


What the Modern Course Includes

The following tutorial series is specifically for beginners to introduce the basics.
Variables and Operators (in 11 parts)
Decision Making (in 13 parts)
Functions (in 7 parts)
The following series is for everyone to introduce the modern way of coding JavaScript.
Hello World
Events
Visitor Triggered Events
Timed Events
Testing Conditions
Feature Sensing
Alternate Tag Location
Functions and Methods
Passing Parameters
Variables/Properties
Objects
Arrays
NodeLists
Loops
Numbers
Strings
Dates
Alert
Other Objects
Extending Objects
Creating Objects
Collision Proofing
JavaScript and Forms
Updating the Web Page
Obsolete JavaScript


What the Classical Course Includes


The following is a list of the topics that are covered in this tutorial series. Note that the material in this course covers much of the same material as the modern course does but covers the way that people used to handle the tasks using javaScript. While much of the code that is used for modern coding is the same as the classical method (which is why I haven't removed these tutorials) some of the material presented in these tutorials is more appropriate for antiquated browsers such as IE4 and Netscape 4 rather than modern browsers such as Firefox 3, Opera 9.5, Safari 3 and IE8.
Hello World
Variables
Operators
The IF Statement
The CASE Statement
Functions
Variable Scope
Passing Parameters
Values of Functions
ALERT and CONFIRM
Comments
Finding and Fixing Errors
External Javascripts
Using NOSCRIPT
Objects and Properties
Arrays
FOR Loops
WHILE Loops
Date and Time
Mathematical Functions
String Processing
Document Object Model
The Internet Explorer DOM
The Netscape DOM
The W3C DOM
Cross Browser DOM
Event Handlers
Mouse Events
Keyboard Events
Form Handling Events
Page Load/Unload Events
Timed Events
Global Events
Object Oriented Javascript
Defining Classes
Puting it all Together