Frameworks outside the web browser

Another monumental event during the appearance of the first frontend frameworks was the emergence of a new open source runtime called Node.js. Node.js allowed developers to use JavaScript to produce server-side scripts, deploy backend systems, build developer tools, and, more importantly, write frameworks using the same language as the one from the web browser. The unique combination of having JavaScript on both sides of the software stack created immense possibilities for software developers. This runtime has since spread into many directions beyond software applications, with frameworks for desktop application development, hardware I/O solutions, and much more.

JavaScript-built frameworks enabled the web platform to become one of the most important technologies within reach of billions of people. It’s almost impossible to imagine starting a new project without relying on the consistency and amiability of using a framework, and even the smallest tasks benefit significantly from using a cohesive and opinionated structure. However, even with the fast-paced evolution of the language and how we build web projects, it took quite a bit of time for JavaScript frameworks to emerge as fully encapsulated platforms that can aid developers in producing efficient applications.

JavaScript prevailed through the rise of mobile platforms, with multiple frameworks being created for mobile and existing systems integrating mobile benchmarks into their release process. The optimizations got to the hardware level, having the ARM (arm.com) processor architecture introduce optimizations to improve JavaScript performance in data type conversion, resulting in performance boosts for many JavaScript applications. That is quite a journey for a scripting language that started with small scripts on plain web pages.

Today, we can create fully fledged applications and services using the web platform by combining the power of web APIs, the JavaScript language, and technologies such as progressive web apps, using the frameworks that bring it all together. It is a fantastic time to start traversing the world of these JavaScript systems and using them to our advantage.

Now that we have an overview of how web development evolved, let’s take a look at how the code bases have changed over time.