DEV Community

Cover image for What is this "Javascript Engine" they speak about?
kapeel kokane
kapeel kokane

Posted on

14 8

What is this "Javascript Engine" they speak about?

The Premise

If you are not living under a rock or inside a cave for the past decade, chances are, you have come across this magical programming language called Javascript.

I call it magical because it started out as a language to add interactions to your static html page back in 1994 and today, it powers the backend services of some giants in the industry like Netflix.

The Basics

So Javascript is that code that provides functionality to your code. It is either executed inside the browser environment or inside the operating system environment via something like node.JS.

But how are these lines of code that you write finally understood by the environment where you are executing that code? This is where the Javascript engine comes into the picture. It is that entity that converts this high-level language into something that your "environment" can make sense of.

The explanation

I created a small animated video explaining the core concepts around the engine in chrome.

Some things covered in the video are:

  • What exactly the javascript engine.
  • How it differs between different browsers.
  • What are the different code optimizations it applies.

Do check out the video and feel free to share your feedback:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM9coMpy5sQ

Sentry blog image

How I fixed 20 seconds of lag for every user in just 20 minutes.

Our AI agent was running 10-20 seconds slower than it should, impacting both our own developers and our early adopters. See how I used Sentry Profiling to fix it in record time.

Read more

Top comments (1)

Collapse
 
msamgan profile image
Mohammed Samgan Khan β€’

nice one bro

SurveyJS custom survey software

JavaScript Form Builder UI Component

Generate dynamic JSON-driven forms directly in your JavaScript app (Angular, React, Vue.js, jQuery) with a fully customizable drag-and-drop form builder. Easily integrate with any backend system and retain full ownership over your data, with no user or form submission limits.

Learn more

πŸ‘‹ Kindness is contagious

Please leave a ❀️ or a friendly comment on this post if you found it helpful!

Okay