# Hello, JavaScript! JavaScript has a rich history. It was created in 1995 as a simple language exclusively for web browsers, to “make web pages alive”. Since then it has greatly evolved. Today we can use JavaScript on many platforms: - In a web-browser, by embedding it into a web page. - On a general purpose computer or a server, using [Node.js](https://nodejs.org) and other means. - ...Or actually on any device that has a special piece of software, called "JavaScript engine". Technically, even a coffee machine can include its own JavaScript engine to allow programming of coffee recipes. ![](javascript-engine.svg) There's a formal language description called [ECMAScript Language Specification](https://tc39.es/ecma262/), it describes how a JavaScript engine works. Sometimes we'll give references to it, but, though technically strict, it's hard to read for humans. At least at first. Programs in JavaScript are called *scripts*. Browsers have built-in JavaScript engines, so they can run scripts. They can be embedded right into HTML using the ` ``` To see it in action, you can click the "run" button in the upper-right corner. Also you can create a new file, e.g. `my.html` with this text and open it locally in a browser. Depending on the environment, JavaScript may provide platform-specific functionality. - In a browser, JavaScript can manipulate the web-page, send network requests, show messages and so on. - In node.js we can use JavaScript to run a web-server, read and write arbitrary files. - ...And so on. **In this course we concentrate on the core JavaScript, that's the same everywhere.** We'll try to keep browser-specific notes at minimum. After you learn the core, you can go in any direction: browsers, frameworks, servers and so on. Turn the page to start learning JavaScript!