This module provides you with a hands-on introduction to JavaScript, a programming language that can be embedded directly in an HTML document and interpreted by your browser. We provide you with a simple JavaScript program that not only illustrates the language, but also serves as a medium for developing your own programming skills.

Lab 5.1: HTML and JavaScript
Lab 5.2: Form-al Logic
Lab 5.3: Functions Follow Forms
Lab 5.4: You're in Control
Lab 5.5: Functions, Revisited
Lab 5.6: Objects of Attention
  1. Examine how HTML forms support interactive interfaces
  2. Illustrate the structure of JavaScript programs, and show how they are described in an HTML document
  3. Review the JavaScript code that implements a simple online order form to see the range of statements and data types that can be represented in JavaScript
  4. Show you how to write, test, and debug JavaScript functions of your own
  5. Describe the programming process in general, life cycle terms
Module Quiz

Every program that you have used - from your word processor to your web browser - had to be written in a programming language. This text module provides you with a brief but realistic introduction to the process and the means by which programs are written. It does so in the context of the web-based programming language, JavaScript.

JavaScript is a relatively simple language that illustrates many traditional programming topics, including: basic data types and statements, control structures, and subprograms. It has the added virtue of having been designed to work within and with HTML code. That is, JavaScript programs are written directly into the HTML that describes a Web10 page, and the language has features which allow programs to interact with the components of the pages.

Modules 2 and 3 explored computer applications, local and global. Metaphorically speaking, using such programs is like being a guest at a dinner party-the meal had been chosen and prepared for you, and all you had to do was enjoy it. In Module 4 you designed pages of your own, and got a feeling for what it's like to host a dinner party. You chose what was to be presented, and how it was to be organized. In this module, we take you into the "electronic kitchen" and show you how to prepare the meal. At the end, you will have more than a cookbook knowledge of programming, and will be on the way toward knowing how to create recipes of your own.

MODULES:



© 2004 Thomson/Brooks Cole, All Rights Reserved.