Foundations of JavaScript and Tooling

This unit introduces core JavaScript language features, runtime concepts, and essential tooling used in modern web development. Students will learn to write, run, and debug JavaScript in both Node.js and browser environments, understand asynchronous and event-driven programming, and gain a practical introduction to component-based front-end frameworks and build tooling to prepare for more advanced application development.

Learning Objectives

• Demonstrate foundational JavaScript skills by writing, executing, and debugging programs that use variables, expressions, control flow, arrays, objects, and functions
• Apply Node.js and browser runtime concepts and tooling by installing Node, organizing code into modules, using core modules (e.g., fs), and running scripts in appropriate environments
• Analyze asynchronous and event-driven behavior by explaining the event loop and implementing callbacks, Promises, async/await, EventEmitter, streams, and buffer operations
• Evaluate component-based front-end patterns and development tooling by comparing React/Vue/Svelte concepts (JSX, components, props, events, single-file components), and configuring basic build scripts, linting, and security best practices