JavaScript: Getting Started

Course Overview
Hello everyone, my name is Mark Zamoyta, and welcome to my course, JavaScript: Getting Started. I am a software consultant and developer in the Portland, Oregon area. JavaScript is one of the most popular programming languages. According to GitHub, JavaScript is the top programming language, and it's more than twice as popular as the runner-up, Python. Learning the JavaScript language is valuable for any developer. JavaScript is the language of the web supported by all major browsers, but tools exist to take JavaScript far beyond web pages. You can create native smartphone and tablet apps, desktop apps for Windows and Mac, and even server-side apps using JavaScript. In this course I'll cover JavaScript programming for those who are completely new to programming. This is also valuable for programmers who are just new to the JavaScript language. We'll learn the JavaScript features needed to get you started, and we'll build the card game Blackjack along the way as a sample project. By the end of this course you'll know the very basics of JavaScript and you'll be able to build simple programs for the web. No prior knowledge of programming is required for this course. I hope you'll join me on this journey in learning how to program with my Pluralsight course, JavaScript: Getting Started.

JavaScript Beginnings
Hi, this is Mark Zamoyta for Pluralsight. This module is titled JavaScript Basics, so we'll get into the fundamentals of programming in JavaScript. Every application needs to store information, and the way we do that in JavaScript, or most languages, is with variables. So we'll see what a variable is and how we create them. And when working with variables or just plain coding, we're undoubtedly going to run into errors, so we'll see how to read error messages and fix things up. Next we'll see how to work with strings, which are words or sentences, that type of thing, or numbers, and how we use variables to hold them. Next we'll look at simple operators, those are things like plus, minus, the multiplication symbol, division, basically any kind of math operator. And we'll look at how to add comments to our code. Comments get ignored by JavaScript and the complier, but they're very valuable for people who actually read your source code, so we'll see how to create comments. And finally we'll start building out our Blackjack application. We'll add some variables to it, and comments, and it won't do much, but we'll have a good start. So let's get started and find out what variables are all about.

Types and Arrays
Welcome to this module titled Types and Arrays. My name is Mark Zamoyta. By types we're referring to the information that's stored in a variable, not its value, but what type of value it is. Is it a string, a number, or something else? And an array is a mechanism that lets us hold more than one value. We could store a whole deck of cards, a huge list of every person in the city, or any another information that's more than just one value. We'll start off this module by looking at string and number types. We've already worked with these a bit, but there's a little more information you need to know about them. Next we'll look at Boolean types, and those refer to variables that are either true or false. And there are two special values that we need to be aware of when working with JavaScript. One is undefined and the other is null. We'll see how to use these and what the major difference is. And next we'll look at arrays for storing multiple values. We can store multiple strings, multiple numbers, or a large collection of just about anything. And then we'll look at some of the key features you need to know when working with arrays. How to add new values into an array, how to insert values, how to pull values out of arrays, and that kind of thing. And we'll wrap up this module by adding arrays to our Blackjack game. So let's get started and look at string and number types.

Functions
Hi, my name is Mark Zamoyta, and in this module we'll be talking about functions. And a function is simply a block of code that we can execute over, and over, and over. So we'll be learning function basics. We'll see how to use the function keyword in order to create a function. We'll see how to pass information into a function, and then get some information out of the function. We'll take a look at function scope, which has to do with using variables within functions. And we'll wrap it up by adding functions to our blackjack game. So let's get started and see how we can create our first function.

Objects
Hi, my name is Mark Zamoyta and welcome to this module on Objects. An object lets us store related information in one place. Let's say we have an application about cities across the world. A city is going to have a name, it's also going to have a population, and it's also going to be associated with some country. So an object can group all that information together, the name, the population, and the country, and we'll be learning the fundamentals of objects in this module. We'll start off by creating a very simple, basic object. We'll see how we can pass that object to functions and manipulate it. It's very common to have arrays of objects. So far we've seen arrays of strings and other values, but having arrays of objects is one of the more common types of arrays you'll work with. Next we'll look at some of the JavaScript built-in objects. And we'll also see how to find out more information about these objects online, and we'll wrap things up by adding objects to our Blackjack game. So let's get started and create our first object.

Programming for Web Pages
This module is titled Programming for Web Pages. My name is Mark Zamoyta. Every application is going to need to gather input from a user, and the most common way to do that in JavaScript is through a web page. Also we would want to display output to a user through a web page. So far we've only been working with the Console, which is built into the browser, but now we can start working with HTML5 tags. We'll start this module by setting up a web page. We'll add a few basic elements and we'll see what we need to do to access these elements in JavaScript. Next we'll go to JavaScript and we'll see how to change some text on the web page. Next we'll have some buttons on our web page, but we want to know when those buttons get clicked. We'll see how to handle a button click using what's called an event handler. Next we'll see how to remove and add elements to a web page, and we'll wrap up the module by adding a user interface to our Blackjack game. So let's get started and look at a web page in Plunker and set it up to be used by JavaScript.

Finishing Our Application
Hi, this is Mark Zamoyta, and in this module we'll finish our Blackjack game. We've been building it throughout the course and it's time to wrap it up so it actually plays a game. We'll start off by setting up the game, we'll clean up what we already have, set up all our variables, and make sure we have a good starting point. Next we'll shuffle the cards. We haven't seen how to do that yet, so we'll do it here. We'll see how to calculate the score based upon the cards that are dealt to the players, and we'll implement our hit and stay buttons so that the player has the option of either taking a card or staying, not taking another card. And we'll wrap it up by adding the final code to our game, and seeing the game in action, and also taking a look at some of the features that you might want to add to the game. So let's start off by setting up the game.