Intro to JavaScript and jQuery

Exercise files for my Intro to JavaScript and jQuery workshop that I teach at General Assembly.

Vocab

• Javascript: “is a dynamic computer programming language.” - Wikipedia
• Inline JavaScript: JavaScript that is added directly to the DOM between an opening script tag (<script>) and a closing script tag (</script>).
• Variable: "You use variables as symbolic names for values in your application. The names of variables, called identifiers, conform to certain rules." - MDN
  • Primitive: "A primitive (primitive value, primitive data type) is data that is not an Object and does not have any methods." - MDN
    • Number: A numeric data type. For example: Integers, Floats, Doubles, or Bignums. - MDN Number
    • String: A sequence of characters. This literal is denoted with a single or double notation. - MDN String Object.
    • Boolean: A value used for logic that is converted to either true or false. - MDN Boolean Object
    • Undefined: A global variable that represents the value undefined. - MDN Undefined
• Literals: "You use literals to represent values in JavaScript. These are fixed values, not variables, that you literally provide in your script." - MDN Values, Variables, and Literals
• Operators: symbols that can be used to assign values, compare values, preform arithmetic, test logic, manipulate strings, and more.
  • Arithmetic operators: "Arithmetic operators take numerical values (either literals or variables) as their operands and return a single numerical value." - MDN Expressions and Operators
  • Assignment operators: "An assignment operator assigns a value to its left operand based on the value of its right operand." - MDN Expressions and Operators
  • String operators: "In addition to the comparison operators, which can be used on string values, the concatenation operator (+) concatenates two string values together, returning another string that is the union of the two operand strings." - MDN Expressions and Operators
  • Comparison operators: "compares its operands and returns a logical value based on whether the comparison is true." MDN Expressions and Operators
• Function: "A JavaScript function is a block of code designed to perform a particular task. A JavaScript function is executed when "something" invokes it (calls it)." - W3Schools
  • Invoke: To initiate a block of code, that would otherwise not be executed.
  • Parameter: A variable that is passed to a function and can be accessed inside the function's block of code.
• Object (layman’s terms): While a variable is a symbol for one specific values, and object is a symbol for a wrapper, that can have many values that describe it. - MDN Object - MDN Object initializer
• jQuery: is a JavaScript library, or a collection of functions/methods and objects that you can utilize. “It makes things like HTML document traversal and manipulation, event handling, animation, and Ajax much simpler with an easy-to-use API that works across a multitude of browsers.” - jQuery
• Content Delivery Network (CDN): “A content delivery network or content distribution network (CDN) is a large distributed system of servers deployed in multiple data centers across the Internet. The goal of a CDN is to serve content to end-users with high availability and high performance.” - Wikipedia
• Document Object Model (DOM) "The Document Object Model (DOM) is a cross-platform and language-independent convention for representing and interacting with objects in HTML, XHTML, and XML documents. The nodes of every document are organized in a tree structure, called the DOM tree." - Wikipedia
• MDN: Mozilla Developer Network