Foundations of JavaScript Development

This unit establishes the essential JavaScript knowledge and toolchain for building modern web applications, covering language fundamentals, runtime and asynchronous behavior, basic Node.js APIs, and an introduction to component-based front-end frameworks. It prepares students to write modular, maintainable code and to continue into deeper server-side, database, and advanced framework topics in subsequent units.

Learning Objectives

• Demonstrate the ability to install and configure a JavaScript development environment (Node.js, package manager, build tools, and linters) and run scripts and build tasks.
• Apply core JavaScript features (variables, expressions, control flow, arrays, objects, functions, encapsulation, and modules) to design and implement modular code solutions.
• Analyze the JavaScript runtime and asynchronous patterns (event loop, callbacks, promises, async/await, EventEmitter, streams, and buffers) to identify, debug, and resolve common concurrency and I/O issues.
• Construct and evaluate basic client-side components and interactions using modern frameworks and Web APIs (React/JSX fundamentals, component design, props/events, and Svelte/Vue comparisons) to inform architecture choices for interactive applications.