What's JavaScript Class?

Who is this Class intended for?
This class is intended for you if you would like to go beyond what basic HTML has to offer and add some functionality to your site using JavaScript. If you are unsure as to what JavaScript can do for you and would like to know before you continue in this class, then skip ahead to Lesson 2 and read the section on What is JavaScript?. Make sure you come back here after reviewing that section. You do not need to be a programmer to learn JavaScript in this class. In fact, a programmer will probably get bored and never finish the class. This class is designed for someone that is comfortable writing HTML coding in a text editor. If you know the basic tags for HTML and can develop a page using a text editor, then I would say you should get along fine in this class. If you exclusively use a web page editor, such as Microsoft Frontpage or Netscape's Composer, and don't really know much about HTML, then I would say that this class will be very difficult for you.

Getting Ready to Learn JavaScript
One of the nice things about programming JavaScript is you do not need any special programming tools. All that is really needed is a simple text editor such as Notepad that comes with Windows 95/98/NT or SimpleText on the Mac. I have had no success using any HTML editor such as Netscape's composer or Microsoft's Frontpage with a document that contains JavaScript.
Notepad is a adequate for writing scripts on the PC. However, a far better choice is EditPad, a Notepad replacement, that is available on the author's web page for only the cost of sending him a postcard. EditPad allows you to have many documents open at once which is invaluable for cutting and pasting. EditPad has some other really nice features including a find and replace feature that I constantly use and a display of the line number that the cursor is on which is really useful when tracking JavaScript errors.

Browser to use for this class
To get the most out of this class, you should have a Netscape 4 or later browser and an Internet Explorer 4 or later browser installed on your computer. Version 4 browsers are very similar in their treatment of JavaScript making it easier for us to learn the basics without having to worry about the peculiarities of the different browsers. Having a copy of both the Internet Explorer and Netscape browsers allows you to test your scripts on both. Understand that these are not the only browsers that scripts will be used on. Therefore, a prudent JavaScript programmer will test scripts on different versions of each Browser.
You can get a free copy of the Netscape browser here and a free copy of the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser here.

What to do if you have a Problem
Making the simplest script work sometimes can take a lot of time and patience. When you get to the point that you just cannot figure out what you have done wrong, the best thing to do is to post your script on your web site and email me using the link you will find in the Help section of the menu that is on every lesson page. Please make sure that you furnish me enough information that I can understand exactly what you problem is.