JavaScript is not the JavaScript you and i knew a decade ago, back in those days JavaScript was only used for web development purposes and was not so popular among programmers, back in those days JavaScript was just not that great but with the launch of ECMAScript 2015 or popularly known as ES6, the powers of JavaScript has exceeded beyond our imaginations. Now with the launch of technologies like NodeJS, React Native, Electron etc JavaScript has more power than ever. Developers can now develop various kinds of applications. Some of those superpowers of JavaScript are mentioned below.
Native Mobile Apps Using JavaScript
Cross-platform native mobile applications can be developed using JavaScript with the help of Facebook’s React Native.
React Native enables developers to write their Android, iOS or Windows application using JavaScript. React Native combines smoothly with components written in Objective-C, Java, or Swift. Facebook and Instagram are also written using React Native. Huge companies are also adopting to technologies like React Native because of their pros like companies have to manage single code base of their app for Android, iOS, and Windows.
Check out more about React Native
Desktop Applications Using JavaScript
JavaScript also has the power to develop cross-platform desktop applications using ElectronJS.
ElectronJS is a framework that lets you develop cross-platform desktop applications using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Electron combines the versatility of a web browser and the native platform experience which as a result provides fast native desktop applications with web-level UI and UX. Using electron developers can also keep a single code base of their app for all the major platforms such as Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Check out more about ElectronJS
Server Code Using JavaScript
About a decade ago JavaScript can only be used for client side web programming and only languages like PHP were used to write server code but the launch of NodeJS has changed everything. Now server code can also be written in JavaScript.
NodeJS is extremely powerful and famous among developers. NodeJS is one of the most treading and growing technologies. There are a lot of companies that are adopting NodeJS.
Machine Learning Using JavaScript
Machine Learning or deep learning is the hottest & treading technology of 2019 and now it can be done using JavaScript.
Frameworks like Tensorflow.js and Brain.js made it possible to write machine learning code in JavaScript. Neural networks can be created in JavaScript with just few lines of code.
Check out more about Tensorflow.js
Evolution of Client Side JavaScript
JavaScript has evolved beyond our imaginations, ECMASCRIPT 2015 or ES6 has introduced a lot of major changes in JavaScript. Now JavaScript has a lot of useful features like fetch API, asynchronous programming, promises, modules, object-oriented concepts and more. JavaScript front-end frameworks like Angular, React, and Vue pushed client-side programming far ahead of its time.
JavaScript frameworks are mostly used to write Single Page Applications or SPAs. Code generated using these frameworks is clean and widely supported by web browsers.
There is a lot more that can be done using JavaScript but all the above should be enough to get you motivated for learning JavaScript.
JavaScript is the duct tape of the Internet.
— Charlie Campbell