Advantage And Disadvantage of JavaScript?

Advantages of JavaScript

Firstly, we will discuss the benefits or advantages of using JavaScript –

1. Speed

Since JavaScript is an ‘interpreted’ language, it reduces the time required by other programming languages like Java for compilation. JavaScript is also a client-side script, speeding up the execution of the program as it saves the time required to connect to the server.

2. Simplicity

JavaScript is easy to understand and learn. The structure is simple for the users as well as the developers. It is also very feasible to implement, saving developers a lot of money for developing dynamic content for the web.

3. Popularity

Since all modern browsers support JavaScript, it is seen almost everywhere. All the famous companies use JavaScript as a tool including Google, Amazon, PayPal, etc.

4. Interoperability

JavaScript works perfect with other programming languages and therefore numerous developers prefer it in developing many applications. We can embed it into any webpage or inside the script of another programming language.

5. Server Load

As JavaScript operates on the client-side, data validation is possible on the browser itself rather than sending it off to the server. In case of any discrepancy, the whole website needs not to be reloaded. The browser updates only the selected segment of the page.

6. Rich Interfaces

JavaScript provides various interfaces to developers for creating catchy webpages. Drag and drop components or sliders may give a rich interface to the webpages. This leads to improved user-interactivity on the webpage.

7. Extended Functionality

Third-party add-ons like Greasemonkey (a Mozilla Firefox extension) allow the developers to add snippets of predefined code in their code to save time and money. These add-ons help the developers build JavaScript applications a lot faster and with much more ease than other programming languages.

8. Versatility

JavaScript is now capable of front-end as well as back-end development. Back-end development uses NodeJS while many libraries help in front-end development like AngularJS, ReactJS, etc.

9. Less Overhead

JavaScript improves the performance of websites and web applications by reducing the code length. The codes contain less overhead with the use of various built-in functions for loops, DOM access, etc.

 

Disadvantages of JavaScript

Now after discussing the advantages of using JavaScript, its time to have a look at some disadvantages of using JavaScript which we have briefly discussed below –

1. Client-side Security

Since the JavaScript code is viewable to the user, others may use it for malicious purposes. These practices may include using the source code without authentication. Also, it is very easy to place some code into the site that compromises the security of data over the website.

2. Browser Support

The browser interprets JavaScript differently in different browsers. Thus, the code must be run on various platforms before publishing. The older browsers don’t support some new functions and we need to check them as well.

3. Lack of Debugging Facility

Though some HTML editors support debugging, it is not as efficient as other editors like C/C++ editors. Also, as the browser doesn’t show any error, it is difficult for the developer to detect the problem.

4. Single Inheritance

JavaScript only supports single inheritance and not multiple inheritance. Some programs may require this object-oriented language characteristic.

5. Sluggish Bitwise Function

JavaScript stores a number as a 64-bit floating-point number and operators operate on 32-bit bitwise operands. Thus, JavaScript converts the number to 32-bits signed integers, operates on them and converts them back to 64-bits JavaScript numbers. This continuous conversion takes more time in conversion of number to an integer. This increases the time needed to run the script and reduces its speed.

6. Rendering Stopped

A single code error can stop the rendering of the entire JavaScript code on the website. To the user, it looks as if JavaScript was not present. However, the browsers are extremely tolerant of these errors.