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~~Before~~ JavaScript was created a typical web browsing experience consisted largely of displaying static pages of information. Any type of user interaction with a web page usually involved the browser sending information back to the web server where some type of server based script or other program would valid the user's data input. The server would then either send back a static error page if the user had entered invalid data or, assuming successful validation, return another static page to the web browser containing the results of ~~the transaction. A lack~~ of ~~dynamic web page behavior dictacted that an entirely new web page be loaded in order to display new information.~~

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<td width="20%">[[JavaScript Essentials|Previous]]<td align="center">[[JavaScript Essentials|Table of Contents]]<td width="20%" align="right">[[Intended Audience|Next]]</td>

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<td width="20%">Table of Contents<td align="center"><td width="20%" align="right">Intended Audience</td>

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It quickly became clear that a way of perfoming "client-side" or "web browser-side" processing was needed. The original intent for JavaScript, therefore, was to address this need by allowing such tasks as validating user input before it is transimitted to the web server, and creating dynamic web page content and layouts indendent of the web server depending on user actions (for example displaying different text depending on a user's actions within the page).

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JavaScript met and, indeed, exceeded these requirements by providing an extremely flexible and easy to learn scripting language. The problem today is that, as with any useful technology, it has been used in ways never anticipated by its original authors. As a result the potential uses of JavaScript have grown far beyond the needs of the average person with aneed to add dynamic behavior to web pages. The result of this is that JavaScript book authors also feel the need to cover every possible capability of JavaScript to the extent that a typical JavaScript reference now runs to over 1,000 pages.

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#0 /var/www/techotopia/includes/diff/DairikiDiff.php(544): DiffEngine->diag()
#1 /var/www/techotopia/includes/diff/DairikiDiff.php(344): DiffEngine->compareSeq()
#2 /var/www/techotopia/includes/diff/DairikiDiff.php(227): DiffEngine->diffLocal()
#3 /var/www/techotopia/includes/diff/DairikiDiff.php(721): DiffEngine->diff()
#4 /var/www/techotopia/includes/diff/DairikiDiff.php(859): Diff->__construct()
#5 /var/www/techotopia/includes/diff/DairikiDiff.php(980): MappedDiff->__construct()
#6 /var/www/techotopia/includes/diff/TableDiffFormatter.php(194): WordLevelDiff->__construct()
#7 /var/www/techotopia/includes/diff/DiffFormatter.php(140): TableDiffFormatter->changed()
#8 /var/www/techotopia/includes/diff/DiffFormatter.php(111): DiffFormatter->block()
#9 /var/www/techotopia/includes/diff/DifferenceEngine.php(881): DiffFormatter->format()
#10 /var/www/techotopia/includes/diff/DifferenceEngine.php(797): DifferenceEngine->generateTextDiffBody()
#11 /var/www/techotopia/includes/diff/DifferenceEngine.php(728): DifferenceEngine->generateContentDiffBody()
#12 /var/www/techotopia/includes/diff/DifferenceEngine.php(662): DifferenceEngine->getDiffBody()
#13 /var/www/techotopia/includes/diff/DifferenceEngine.php(632): DifferenceEngine->getDiff()
#14 /var/www/techotopia/includes/diff/DifferenceEngine.php(453): DifferenceEngine->showDiff()
#15 /var/www/techotopia/includes/page/Article.php(797): DifferenceEngine->showDiffPage()
#16 /var/www/techotopia/includes/page/Article.php(508): Article->showDiffPage()
#17 /var/www/techotopia/includes/actions/ViewAction.php(44): Article->view()
#18 /var/www/techotopia/includes/MediaWiki.php(490): ViewAction->show()
#19 /var/www/techotopia/includes/MediaWiki.php(287): MediaWiki->performAction()
#20 /var/www/techotopia/includes/MediaWiki.php(714): MediaWiki->performRequest()
#21 /var/www/techotopia/includes/MediaWiki.php(508): MediaWiki->main()
#22 /var/www/techotopia/index.php(41): MediaWiki->run()
#23 {main}