Publishing Books Using XML Technologies
Dr. Herong Yang, Version 4.01

What Is JavaScript?

This section provides you some basics of JavaScript language.

JavaScript is simple scripting language that can be used inside Web pages to generate dynamic page contents. From a language syntax point of view, JavaScript is very similar to Java. JavaSctipt supports the following basic features:

  • Variables
  • Arrays
  • Arithmetic expressions
  • String expressions
  • Logical expressions
  • Conditional statements
  • Loops
  • Buit-in functions
  • User-defined functions
  • Accessing browser window and document objects

JavaScript statements can be included in Web pages using the "script" element as shown in the following example:

<p>Your random number is: 
<script type="text/javascript">
number = Math.round((Math.random()*9)+1);
document.write(number);
</script>
</p>

Sections in This Chapter

What Is JavaScript?

How JavaScript Is Used in hyPub?

Dr. Herong Yang, updated in 2007
What Is JavaScript?