The JavaScript console
Coding may seem difficult, mysterious, or scary. But it doesn’t have to be! It actually follows quite a basic set of rules. In this class, we’ll pull back the curtain on coding early on.
Below is a web console. The console allows you to interact with JavaScript code directly. This is the language that powers all interactive websites!
Try typing the following after the blue arrow above and press <Enter>:
let a = 2;
Congratulations! It may not seem exciting, but you just ran code. This code creates a variable called “a” which stores the value 2. This variable is just a placeholder.
Now try typing:
a + 3. Before you press <Enter>, what do you think the output will be?
Reveal working code
It’s 5! That makes sense, because the computer is just calculating “a + 3”, or 2 + 3 = 5.
Enabling the web console in your browser
Every web browser has a JavaScript console built in to let you run code quickly and tinker around with web pages. As a mini exercise, try to figure out how to open the console for your web browser.
The way I would go about this is as follows: Google search “open web console [browser name]” (replacing [browser name] with the name of your web browser, e.g. ”open web console firefox”). Now scan the first page of results for an authoritative-looking website.
Once you get the web console running in your browser, try typing in the above exercise in your browser’s console.
