Websites can be designed with the help of an extensive assortment of different coding languages, some of which are more complicated than others. A few of the most popular web development languages are HTML, JavaScript, PHP, CSS, Ruby, Python, and SQL. PHP and Ruby are extremely common among web developers, entrepreneurs, and startups. But the primary languages of JavaScript, and HTML, let you understand the basics of web design and development. Each of these web development languages has a distinct purpose. These two programming languages are ideally the foundation of any website, which is why you must be aware of how these languages will affect your website and what they are typically used for.
JavaScript and HTML are high-end programming languages that are used in combination with each other to develop web applications. Hypertext Markup Language, known as HTML is a conventional computer language used to tag text files to achieve color, font, graphics, and hyperlink effects on web pages. While HTML is used to design the fundamental structure of web pages, JavaScript is like an advanced iteration of the HTML, which is used to make web pages more interactive and dynamic. JavaScript is often regarded as one of the most resourceful scripting languages used to implement dynamic content to websites by manipulating the content of the pages. HTML is a bunch of codes fitted in a file to structure a web page, meaning it determines how a webpage should appear, whereas JavaScript is a more high-level language that makes a website look good in a dynamic fashion. Let us take a look at the difference between javascript and HTML in detail.
What is HTML?
HTML (Hypertext markup language) is used to format and design a web page’s user interface. HTML also assists the user to navigate to various pages on the same website or by linking websites together. HTML is at the heart of Front End development. Tags are used to structure a webpage. It is necessary to learn that HTML is not a programming language as it can’t create dynamic functionality. Instead, with HTML, web users can design and structure paragraphs, sections, and links using elements tags, sections, and attributes
The first version of HTML was not very successful as developers were into developing websites at that time. Nevertheless, in 1995 HTML 2 was released and the exact structure with tags introduced in HTML 1.0 was also incorporated in this version and more tags were introduced such as <Meta>. Additionally, support for forms was added to this version.
HTML 3 released in Jan 1997, introduced tables, mathematical equations, and fill-out forms like checkboxes, text fields, and radio buttons. Additionally, in HTML 3.0 the support of stylesheets via a link and multimedia features were also available. HTML 4 incorporated features like multimedia, support for frames, and more printing options were made possible. In HTML 4.0.1 version, many more tags were introduced. This was the most successful version of HTML and it took years before another better version of HTML was released in 2014. HTML5 is the most contemporary version used these days by all developers and is supported by all modern browsers. HTML5 has many upgraded APIs and traits which make it much more convenient for a web developer to get the desired result for the web page.
Key Features of HTML
- HTML is very simple to learn and understand. The tags are simple, and there is no hectic case sensitivity in HTML.
- One of the major benefits of HTML is that it is cost-effective, and there is no requirement to purchase specific software. One should not have to deal with various plugins needed to work on any software because HTML does not require any plugins.
- HTML is one of the most friendly search engines as compared to all the programming languages available in the market (Search Engine friendly means delivering users quality websites with relevant information when searching for a particular one). It is quite easy to design SEO-compliant websites using HTML than in other programming languages.
- HTML websites are easy to read and can be accessed by web crawlers. Thus, reducing parsing time and the page load time of the website, and improving its performance.
- HTML can be efficiently integrated with various languages and does not create any issues in it.
- HTML is also a very lightweight language. It has a high signal-to-noise ratio in comparison to other forms of communication. It is also quicker to download HTML code, which means it is extremely compressive also.
- Another benefit of HTML is that the changes are reflected instantly just by saving it and reloading the previous HTML page. There is no necessity to run the whole code and find out where the error is. For example, if you have made the word italic, it will show up on the page once it is saved and reloaded.
Read More About – Top Features of HTML
What is Javascript?
JavaScript programming language is used for web applications, game development, web development, and others. It enables you to incorporate dynamic features on web pages that cannot be achieved with only HTML and CSS. Many browsers use JavaScript as a scripting language for executing dynamic things on the web. Any time you come across a click-to-show dropdown menu, additional content added to a page, and dynamically changing element colors on a page, you are observing the effects of JavaScript.
Without JavaScript, you will only have a static website that includes colors, texts, pictures, and links. The features like upload/download, search, button click, file, or anything else will not work. Owing to this crucial role that JavaScript plays in web building, all browsers come with built-in engines that support JavaScript. This makes it convenient for programmers to use as there is no need to install any extra program.
Let’s dive into the details of some of the most common and major JavaScript frameworks:
- node.js is an open-source that performs JavaScript on the server-side.
- Vue.js is an open-source framework, which enables programmers to design user interfaces for websites or single-page applications.
- React.js is a JavaScript library is used to develop single-page applications, and user interfaces and lets users use prewritten code.
- Angularjs is an open-source framework supported by Google and is also used for designing single-page applications.
- JQuery is a JavaScript library used to create web pages more interactive.
Key Features of Javascript
- JavaScript is very beneficial when using HTML forms (Forms are the basics of HTML. We use the HTML form element to generate the JavaScript form. For generating a form, we can use the following sample code: <html>). It can authenticate user input for flaws and also save time. If the user omits an essential field or the information is incorrect, JavaScript analyses for them before sending the data over to the server.
- Since JavaScript is a client-side technology, it can execute basic calculations on the browser. This is very helpful when a user wants to perform these calculations repeatedly. In these cases, connecting to the server takes a lot more time than executing the actual calculation.
- JavaScript offers optimized control to the browser rather than being dependent on the web servers. JavaScript presents different browsers with added functionalities that help decrease server load and network traffic.
- Considering browsers read JavaScript, it resolves the problem of compatibility and compilation with browsers. Therefore, it can operate on Macintosh, Windows, and other Netscape-supported systems. Additionally, it is plausible to embed them in any other script like HTML that keeps JavaScript in use.
- JavaScript comes with built-in functions to ascertain the date and time. Thus, it is quite easy to code only by applying methods like .getDate().
- JavaScript comes with handy features to dynamically generate HTML content for the web. It enables you to add images, text, links, tables, etc after an event occurrence. For example, mouse click.
Read More About – Top JavaScript Features
Difference Between Javascript and HTML
| HTML | Javascript |
| HTML is a standard markup language that gives structure to a website | JavaScript is a high-level programming language that web pages are made more interactive and dynamic |
| HTML is the stepping stone in the development of a website, which generates a basic structure of a web page. HTML is how a website should appear without any interactive effects. | JavaScript manages the content of the page to generate effects on the user actions. It simply incorporates dynamic content into websites to make them look good. |
| HTML is rendered from the web server, which means the markup code is processed by the server before it is sent to the client browser. | JavaScript is synchronous and single-threaded with client-side scripting, meaning each code written is composed and run on the web browser. If you’re running a JavaScript block of code on a page then no other JavaScript on that page will be executed |
| HTML is cross-browser compatible, implying it works well with all versions of web browsers. All old and new browsers handle unrecognized elements as inline elements by default, thus making it easy for older web browsers to manipulate unknown HTML elements. | JavaScript lacks cross-browser compatibility, making a few functions incompatible with some browsers. |
| Standard HTML pages are static, meaning the content is fixed and presents the same information to every user who accesses the website. | Implementing JavaScript would enable programmers to develop user actions for both web pages and web applications. It turns a web page dynamic by manipulating the content of the page. |
| HTML needs CSS to format and present the data properly in a structured format | JavaScript renders dynamic functionality by combining it into HTML code.JavaScript can be used in combination with HTML to power modern web applications that are intuitive, interactive, and user-friendly. |
| HTML’s DOM (Document Object Model) in every page is deemed as an object, which can be handled using the APIs that have been given by the HTML’s specification. | JavaScript’s specification is used for managing some complex functional requirements by making use of functional programming benefits. |
| Maintained by W3C and WHATWG. | Maintained by ECMA TC-39 committee. |
| The latest version of HTML, i.e HTML 5.0 supports video streaming and additional multimedia features. | The latest JavaScript standard ES 8 (ECMAScript) promotes high-end functional programming, higher-order functions, and many more compelling asynchronous functions and memory optimizations. |
Pros and Cons of HTML and JavaScript
Pros and Cons of HTML
Like any other computer language, HTML has its strengths and shortcomings. Listed below are the pros and cons of HTML:
Pros:
- HTML is beginner-friendly. HTML is equipped with clean and consistent markup, along with a shallow learning curve.
- HTML is extensively used, with a lot of resources and a large community behind it.
- HTML is open-source and completely free. It runs natively in all web browsers.
- HTML is easily integrable with backend languages like PHP and Node.js.
Cons:
- HTML is essentially used for static web pages. For the purpose of dynamic functionality, you may require to use JavaScript or a back-end language like PHP.
- It is time-consuming as the time it consumes to maintain the color scheme of a page and to make forms, lists, and tables.
- A lot of code can be difficult to handle.
- Some browsers take time to adopt new features. Often older browsers don’t render newer HTML tags.
Pros and Cons of Javascript
The range of JavaScript is huge and has its fair share of benefits and flaws. Let’s talk about some of the pros and cons of Javascript.
Pros:
- JavaScript offers several interfaces to programmers for devising catchy web pages. Drag and drop components or sliders may provide a rich interface to the web pages.
- JavaScript is a client-side script, which speeds up the execution of the program, saving the time required to connect to the server.
- JavaScript works perfectly with other programming languages, therefore many developers favor it in developing many applications.
- JavaScript enhances the performance of web applications and websites by reducing the code length. The codes comprise less overhead with the use of various built-in functions for loops, DOM access, etc.
Cons:
- Considering the JavaScript code can be seen by the user, others may adopt it for malicious purposes. These practices may involve applying the source code without authentication.
- JavaScript saves a number as a 64-bit floating-point number, and operators run on 32-bit bitwise operands. Therefore, JavaScript changes the number to 32-bits signed integers, works on them, and changes them back to 64-bits JavaScript numbers. This constant conversion takes more time than the conversion of a number to an integer. Thereby, increasing the time needed to run the script and reducing its speed.
- JavaScript can only support single inheritance and not multiple inheritances. Many programs may depend on this object-oriented language characteristic in Javascript.
Conclusion
HTML is an old-fashioned programming language that works with plain text to adjust its appearance. To put in simple words, it is a language that adds meaning to web pages using plain text and it is used to tag text files to create effects for web pages. On the other hand, Javascript is a high-level programming language used to generate dynamic functionalities for websites. It’s a dynamic programming language based on the idea of OOP (Object-oriented programming) which is synchronous with client-side scripting. Javascript is also used to manage content on the website to make it more interactive and dynamic. To conclude, HTML defines how a web page should look, while JavaScript lets you interact with web pages.
When we displayed some HTML and javascript differences, one can quickly come up with a list of limitations each one has.
Frequently Added Questions (FAQs)
- Should I learn JavaScript or HTML first?
Answer: Yes, you need to be well informed of the basics of web development, leaned about HTML and CSS before jumping right into JavaScript. That is because the notions of JavaScript are based on HTML and CSS. Hence, you should learn about HTML before JavaScript. - Is HTML easier than JavaScript?
Answer: Yes, HTML is easy to learn as it is a markup language. This implies you can only define page elements, their styles, and the browser does the work of laying that out for you. Whereas, JavaScript is a programming language. You have to feed the browser with information, step by step what you want to do, and control the flow yourself. This is more complicated by design, there are more theories to learn and more roadblocks to cross.
- Can I use JavaScript with Python?
Answer: Yes, you can use JavaScript in combination with Python and a web framework like Flask, web2py, or Django. JavaScript is ideally used to improve the webpage.
- Can I learn JavaScript without HTML and CSS?
Answer: Yes, by reading about Node JS, which doesn’t need HTML and CSS, unlike traditional web applications. Also, you can know about JavaScript topics that can run independently in the JS compiler like declarations, scopes, closures, ES6 classes, etc.
Additional Resources
- HTML Interview Questions
- Best HTML IDE
- HTML Projects
- HTML5 Features
- HTML Books
- Javascript Interview Questions
- Online Javascript Compiler
- Javascript Projects
- Top JavaScript Libraries
- JavaScript IDE
- JavaScript Books
- JavaScript Frameworks
- Difference Between HTML and CSS
- Difference Between HTML and XHTML
- Difference Between HTML and XML
- Difference Between HTML and HTML5
- Javascript vs JQuery
- Javascript Vs Python
- Java vs Javascript
- Typescript vs Javascript
