Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
JavaScript APIs
As stated earlier, when HTML was created, it was not meant to be used for the de-
velopment of large enterprise applications. When JavaScript was first created back
in 1995, its main goal was to provide a simple scripting language that would allow
web designers to add some logic to their web pages. This too was not meant to be a
foundation tool from which large, complex applications would be developed.
However, as we have seen with HTML itself, as well as CSS, JavaScript has become
very widely used, and developers have outgrown its limited capabilities. Seeing the
direction in which developers were taking the language, in an attempt to leverage
the Web as a platform, browser vendors started to make improvements to JavaScript
as much as was in their power. As a result, very powerful JavaScript engines have
emerged. So, as JavaScript become even more used, and as browser became even
more powerful, a new set of additions has been added to JavaScript.
Today JavaScript is the most popular scripting language used on the Web. Given its
capabilities and the latest tooling available for it, JavaScript has become a very good
option for the development of large applications, especially for games. The latest
JavaScript APIs allow for 2D and 3D graphics rendering, thread-like behavior, sock-
ets, embedded databases, and a whole lot more. Best of all, this new functionality is
built with security in mind, and is not only available on desktop computers, but can
also be used in most devices connected to the World Wide Web.
New JavaScript APIs
While the following is not a comprehensive list of all the new and upcoming APIs and
language features, it does cover the most significant, stable additions to JavaScript,
especially ones that we can leverage for game development. A more detailed explan-
ation of each of the APIs listed in the following list, as well as usage examples, are
available in subsequent chapters:
