This set of pages was developed as part of an introductory tutorial on JavaScript given to John Chenette's Arts, Multimedia, and the Internet course held during the Spring Semester of 1999. These particular sessions were held on April 12 and 14, 1999 and are based closely on sessions from the previous year.

These pages are not intended to be a comprehensive overview of JavaScript. Rather, they are intended to give you the "flavor" of JavaScript and some basic ideas which make sense within larger web design.

Feel free to read, copy, and reuse these pages, but please cite the work when you do so.

These pages were originally designed for printing, rather than viewing online. Eventually (that is, when I have time), I will segment them into smaller "nodes" for improved online viewing.

Send any comments on these pages to rebelsky@math.grin.edu.

Pages

• Day One:
  • About JavaScript
  • The Basics: Events, Input and Output
  • More Basics: Variables and Expressions
  • A Little Bit of Fun
  • Assignments
    • Introductory (for nonprogrammers)
    • Moderate (for introductory programmers)
    • Advanced (for serious programmers)

• Day Two:
  • Notes on Class Two
  • Control: The Conditional (if) statement
  • Functions: Encapsulating Multiple Statements
  • Scheduling Actions
  • Query Strings
  • Assignments
    • Roll your own

• Miscellaneous
  • Libraries
  • References
  • Examples

History

April 12, 1999

• Started rewriting for the 1999 sessions. (Nothing like last-minute non-planning, is there?)

April 8, 1998

• Rearranged somewhat (moved functions to a new page, since they weren't covered in the first session; moved uncovered pages to the second part).
• Added pages for class two (introduction, functions, timing).
• Fixed some sample pages.

April 6, 1998

• Added a few more pages (fun stuff with JavaScript) and the first set of assignments.

April 5, 1998

• First version of the site, based on an earlier (and longer) tutorial prepared for the EdMedia'97 world conference on multimedia and hypermedia in education.