Is Javascript Still Relevant in 2024?
Plus: Valeria of Silicon Valley's Latina Geeks gives a tour of a warehouse that builds and programs robots that sort the recyclables.
Hola Femmebots! Welcome back to the FACTory. I’m Dr. Nutmeg, your hostess, and these X-Ray vision glasses I’m wearing can see your IP, so…put some pants on, porfa! [laugh track]
Tonight, we’re interviewing Valeria [at] LatinaGeeks.com in Silicon Valley. That’s right. In real life there is a real-life Mexicana-Americana IRL who builds and programs and deconstructs real robots ALL DAY LONG (did I mention she is REAL????)!
But before we get to the interview, I wanna talk about Javascript. Javascript? Si! This is when a 1950s style voice pops up in my head and says: Is Javascript still relevant in 2024??? According to the Interwebz, the answer is: Si!
In fact, 98% of websites still use Javascript, according to NuCamp.
NuCamp? What’s NuCamp? Nucamp is a nonprofit based in Tacoma, Washington, birthplace of Microsoft, however, when I load up the website, the header is optimized to say “Orlando” cuz they’re detecting the location of my IP (hence that joke in my opening monologue).
Here’s another attempt at humorous banter between the Femmebots after watching a few episodes of HBO’s Silicon Valley this weekend:
Femmebot 4.0: Nucamp was founded in 2017 by ex-Microsoft Ludovic Foumage.
Femmebot 2.024: What’s an ex-Microsoft?
Femmebot 4.0: I don’t know…a formerly tiny X? [Laugh Track]
Dr. Nutmeg: I don’t get it. Keep working on that banter, Femmebots! The feedback on the six-minute rough assembly of our Flying Cars story for the Enzian Brouhaha Film Festival was: Make it more funny!! Hmphf. Never heard that before (sarcasm).
Anyways, according to Nucamp, “Single Page Apps (SPAs) are blowin' up, with a 30% spike in usage, thanks to JS's mad skills in loading dynamic content.” I know you thought you could build a website with AI now that AI can write books, jokes, and do your laundry, pero, like, not all websites are one-dimensional single pagers or minimalist portfolios.
At least, that’s my experience with creating AI-generated websites. It’s awesome if that’s what you need, but if you have a massive virtual real estate property containing years of data, archives, and information for a very specific (and engaged) audience, AI can’t do it all. You gotta use your brain, and apparently understanding Javascript can help.
Femmebot 7.0 starts to glitch…
B-b-b-butt…..
J-j-j-j-avascriptttttt, it’s, it’s, it’s running all the time on every server,
script after script after script,
ping-ponging the servers to do This if That
every two seconds per second, I can’t keep up with it!!!
Crisis! Crisis! Crisis! How will I ever optimize my client’s outdated, bloated, Frankenstein website if I don’t start untangling all these Javascripts??? I only understand them a little bit! Aaak! Aaaack! It’s a tsunami of code!!!!!
Dr. Nutmeg: Ay ya yay. Que dramatica. Never fear, Nucamp is here?
Femmebot 7.0: Why do you say that like a question?
Dr. Nutmeg: Cuz I’ve never heard of Nucamp. In all my searches for online learning courses, I’ve only heard of Coursera, uDemy, edX, Khan Academy and Skillshare…yeah. Like every other market, online education is hella saturated. According to NuCamp:
JavaScript devs are high in demand,
earning $74,040-$188,650 on average.
Continuous learning is key. (lawyer voice).
OK, great. For paid subscribers, Dr. Nutmeg’s Javascript Workshop starts this week. Here’s the schedule:
Dr. Nutmeg’s Javascript Workshop Schedule
July 8 (Today!): What is Javascript? (Scroll down)
July 15: How many Javascripts are running on your Frankenstein website?
July 22: What are your website visitors looking for and how can Javascript help?
July 29: Now that you know Javascript do you know how to deconstruct your Frankenstein?
And now, our interview with Valeria at LatinaGeeks.com!
What does a day of working with robots look like?
Click the video above for Valeria’s answer and a short tour of her robot-building facilities.
For paid subscribers only: We asked Valeria more questions that take you “BEHIND THE SCENES!”
What toys did you play with when you were a child?
How did you get into Latina Geeks?
Who was your bisabuela?
What do you think of flying cars?
What problems do you hope to solve in the market throughout your career?
Full Interview with Valeria at LatinaGeeks.com
What toys did you play with when you were a child?
How did you get into Latina Geeks?
Who was your bisabuela?
What do you think of flying cars?
What problems do you hope to solve in the market throughout your career?
Hey! One of the Latina Geeks board members, Ginger Zumaeta, is an Emmy award winner. Has she ever thought about supporting a TV series or film about a Latina working in tech? Hmmm.
Day 1 of Dr. Nutmeg’s Javascript Workshop
What is JavaScript?
JavaScript is a scripting or programming language that allows you to implement complex features on web pages. Every time a web page does more than just sit there and display static information for you to look at, you can bet that JavaScript is probably involved. Examples:
displaying timely content updates
interactive maps
animated 2D/3D graphics
scrolling video jukeboxes, etc.
Javascript is the third layer of the layer cake of standard web technologies. The other two are HTML and CSS.
The core client-side JavaScript language consists of some common programming features.
Refresher on the meaning of client-side: End user devices such as laptops, smartphones, and desktop computers are considered to be 'clients' of the servers, as if they were customers obtaining services from a company. Client devices send requests to the servers for webpages or applications, and the servers serve up responses.
Femmebot 7.0: Is that why I was glitching earlier?
Dr. Nutmeg: Yes. Because you’re reacting to the OLD way scripts used to ping servers. According to Cloudflare: “In the past, nearly all business logic ran on the server side…each request involving one of them has to travel all the way from the client to the server, EVERY TIME. This introduces a great deal of latency. For this reason, contemporary applications run more code on the client side; one use case is rendering dynamic webpages in real time by running scripts WITHIN THE BROWSER that make changes to the content a user sees.”
Femmebot 7.0: Aaaaaahhhhhh! The browser is a “client!”
Dr. Nutmeg: Yes, it is indeed, Miss 7.0.
OK, back to JavaScript’s common programming features, which allow you to do things like:
Store useful values inside variables like X and Y.
Operations on pieces of text (known as "strings" in programming).
Running code in response to certain events occurring on a web page. Example: Using a click event to detect when the label is clicked and then run the code that updates the text label.
What is even more exciting is the functionality built on top of the client-side JavaScript language. So-called Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) provide you with extra superpowers to use in your JavaScript code.
Femmebot 7.0: Wait. Why are we suddenly talking about APIs? I thought APIs connect two different apps, you know, like if I wanted to embed a Twitter feed —
Dr. Nutmeg: You mean an X feed…which isn’t really possible anymore since Musk charges a subscription for that feature now.
Femmebot 7.0: Uggggggg!!! I meant X. Why is tech always changing??? #Waaaaaa!!!
Dr. Nutmeg: Calm down, keep going, GlitchyBot.
Femmebot 7.0: Fine, fine. OK, if I wanted to connect X or Instagram or any app to my Wordpress site, I used to use an API. I always thought of it like an “extension cord” to connect two power sources.
Dr. Nutmeg: That’s still correct, and those are called “Third party APIs,” but in this case, we’re talking specifically about Browser APIs.
Femmebot 7.0: Didn’t even know browsers had APIs, bruh…but now I understand why some browsers are older than others and won’t render/display some webpages correctly.
Dr. Nutmeg: Correct. According to MDN Web Docs, previously Mozilla Developer Network, Browser APIs are built in to your browser. For example, the Geolocation API retrieves geographical information. This is how Google Maps is able to find your location and plot it on a map.
Femmebot 7.0: And I guess that’s how NuCamp’s website knows I am connecting to it from snOrlando?
Dr. Nutmeg: Maybe? Let’s go over and check, let’s see…well, “for security reasons, when a web page tries to access location information, the user is notified and asked to grant permission.” But NuCamp doesn’t ask to access location information. Therefore, NuCamp is probably NOT using the Geolocation API of the browser.
Femmebot 7.0: Oh. Is it just using Google Analytics cookies?
Dr. Nutmeg: Uhhhhh. I don’t know. But after Googling “how does website detect my location,” it looks like most websites log your IP address using cookies via Google Analytics. And now we’re back to my opening monologue joke…I see your IP!!! LoL
And that seems like a good place to end today’s workshop!
Stay tuned for next week’s workshop!
July 15: How many Javascripts are running on your Frankenstein website?