Introduction
Many of you may have heard that
JavaScript is a loosely-typed, single-threaded, synchronous language.
But what exactly does this mean?
Let's decode these jargons one at a time.
JavaScript is loosely-typed
- Being loosely-typed implies that the type of data for a variable does not need to be hard coded and that the value is modifiable.
- Depending on the type of data you supply for a variable, JavaScript automatically assigns a type to that variable.
- PROS: Being loosely typed has a lot of advantages for coding, namely speed and flexibility.
- CONS: Unpredictable or even incorrect results could result from a loosely typed language's poorly enforced typing constraints, which also makes it possible for implicit type conversion to occur at runtime.
JavaScript is single-threaded and synchronous
"Single-threaded" means "execution of one statement at a time" and "Synchronous" means "execution in a sequential manner".
Therefore by combining them, we conclude that
- JavaScript executes one statement at a time and in a particular order.
- It can execute the next line only when the current line is done executing.
It keeps a single call stack on which the instructions are popped to execute and pushed to control the order of execution.
For the storing and garbage collection of object references, it also has a Heap space.
Conclusion
Now, whenever someone asks you what kind of language JavaScript is, just enlighten them on the same 🚀.