Quickstart with JavaScript

Before starting fast with ECMAScript you should spend some time reading my introduction post on the ECMAScript, it provides you a better overview:

The ES6 (ECMAScript 6) specification was announced in June 2015. It needs to wait for a period of time so that browsers support all new features. Therefore, to study ES6 and be able to practise, you have 3 approaches:

To study ECMAScript, you need to have an environment to execute the code written by you. It is the simplest to use an online tool, for example, the following website:

To study ES6, you need only a browser. It's best to download the latest version of Chrome, Firefox, or Safari. At present, these browsers support all ES6 features.

You can look up browser support for ES6 at the following link:

NodeJS means an environment running JavaScript (JavaScript Runtime Environment) outside the browser. It contains V8 Javascript Engine, a program written by C++ helping analyze and execute Javascript code. V8 is the Javascript Engine of famous Chrome browser.

Install the NodeJS on your computer helping you to be able to execute the Javascript code without browser. This is really useful for your studying ECMAScript. One more important thing is that the V8 Javascript Engine in the latest NodeJS version can analyze and execute ES7, ES8 codes.

Therefore, I advise you to install the NodeJS:

To write the ECMAScript code, you can use any "Text Editor" . I recommend that you use the Atom editor, which is a free, open source editor provided by the GitHub.

As I say above, to learn the ECMAScript, you need an environment to execute the code written by you. It is the most simple to search a online tool to execute the ECMAScript code, for example, the following website:

Write your ECMAScript and click on the button to execute it.

This tool also allows you to see how the code written by ES6 is converted into ES5 code.

As I say above, to study the ECMAScript, you need only one browser, for example, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and should use the latest version.

Create a HTML file, for example, hello.html:

<h3>View results on the browser's Console window</h3>

<script type="text/javascript">

   console.log("Hello World");

</script>

Open the hello.html file on browser and you can see the results on the Console window of the browser.

Creating a NodeJS project will help you be more easy in studying the ECMAScript. It is noted that you don't probably need to study the NodeJS. You only need the NodeJS as a tool to be able to execute the Javascript codes without a browser.

First of all, create an empty directory, such as node-ecmascript. Open the CMD and CD windows to enter the directory which you just created, and execute the following command to initialize a project:

# Init project:

npm init

Accept default options. Press Enter, Enter,... Enter until completion:

A package.json file has been just created in your directory.

Open your project directory on an editor. Here I use Atom.

Create a hello.js file:

console.log("Hello World");

You have 2 ways for running this file:

Way 1: Open CMD window and run the following command:

node hello.js

Way 2: Install Atom Runner. This plugin allows you to run the script files such as Javascript, Python,... directly on Atom: