JavaScript, often abbreviated as JS, is a dynamic programming language that is widely used for web development, among other applications. It is a versatile language that supports object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles. JavaScript is known for being lightweight, interpreted, and featuring first-class functions, which means functions can be treated like any other variable.

Key Features of JavaScript

JavaScript's capabilities are extensive and include the ability to construct objects at runtime, manage variable parameter lists, and create dynamic scripts. It also offers introspection through mechanisms like for...in loops and various object utilities. Additionally, JavaScript functions can store their source text, allowing developers to retrieve it using the toString() method.

JavaScript Standards and Documentation

The core standards governing JavaScript are the ECMAScript Language Specification (ECMA-262) and the ECMAScript Internationalization API specification (ECMA-402). Documentation for JavaScript tends to be updated as soon as new features are implemented in browsers, which means that MDN articles may use features from ECMAScript proposals that are between stages 3 and 4 of acceptance.