The tools you need

JavaScript ist eine der einfachsten Programmiersprachen um anzufangen, wenn es um die Werkzeuge geht, die man dafür braucht. Wahrscheinlich musst du nicht einmal irgendetwas herunterladen, um anzufangen, weil JavaScript in jedem Texteditor geschrieben werden kann, sogar in einem wie der Editor auf Windows (oder eine Mac-/Linuxalternative) und wenn es um das interpretieren und testen des Codes geht, brauchst du bloß einen Webbrowser. In anderen Worten heißt das, dass du JavaScript lernen kannst, ohne für eine teure IDE zahlen zu müssen oder einen komplizierten Compiler/Interpreter herunterzuladen.

Trotzdem gibt es aber einige Werkzeuge, die die Erfahrung aufpeppen. Schauen wir uns mal an, was es da so gibt.

Der Editor

Wie ich schon gesagt habe, der Editor (Notepad) oder auch jeder andere einfach gehaltene Texteditor kann natürlich für das Schreiben von JavaScript-Code genutzt werden, klar - aber sobald du ein Mal einen Editor genutzt hast, der wirklich für das Code-Schreiben konzipiert ist, weißt du wahrscheinlich, dass der deine Effizienz und/oder Produktivität enorm steigert. Moderne IDEs (das ist die Kurzform für Integrated Development Environment) helfen dir, Code schneller VIEL schneller zu schreiben - dank AutoComplete oder IntelliSense. Das trifft auch auf JavaScript zu.

Since JavaScript is so closely tied to the web, you may already be using a code/web-editor for writing HTML and/or CSS. If so, it likely supports JavaScript as well and I would suggest that you simply stick with this editor when learning JavaScript. If not, I suggest that you get your self a code editor/IDE.

Let's discuss the various options:

An online editor

To get started, you may want to use an online editor. Since JavaScript has such close ties to the web, there are loads of online editors which can do a lot of the same things as a "real" editor, and it can be used directly from your browser, without having to install anything. They are often referred to as "playgrounds" or "fiddles", because they are mostly designed to test, demonstrate and share code, and not so much for working on large projects (although some of them can even be used for this), which makes them perfect for testing and playing with the code examples of this tutorial.

So, if you don't already have a preferred web editor, and you're just looking to see if JavaScript is something you want to spend some time learning, I can definitely recommend an online editor. They offer various levels of IntelliSense, helping you to write JavaScript code more efficiently, and the code can be tested instantly, directly in the browser. Here are a couple of suggestions:

• Playcode.io
• JSFiddle
• JavaScript compiler

Try them out and see which one you like the most.

A simple text editor

As already mentioned, you can just use any kind of simple text editor, like the one that is probably included with your operating system (Notepad for Windows etc.). However, this is mostly for the purists out there, who insists on getting as little help as possible. For everyone else, I recommend one of the other alternatives listed in this article, where you get a helping hand from features like IntelliSense, syntax check and so on.

A web editor

There are several good web editors out there, with a strong focus on web related technologies like HTML, CSS and JavaScript. They are sometimes referred to as "HTML editors", probably because that's how they started, but most of them will support JavaScript as well. I'm not going to recommend a specific editor here, but Wikipedia has a list of editors that you can check out.

Visual Studio Code

Developed by Microsoft, Visual Studio Code is one of the most comprehensive IDE's for writing code in MANY languages, including JavaScript. Since this is a very powerful, multi-purpose tool, it may not be the best choice if you're just getting started. But if you want a complete solution for HTML, CSS, JavaScript and basically any other language, VS Code is definitely worth giving a try. It's available for Windows, Mac and Linux and can be downloaded here.

The interpreter/JavaScript engine

Unless you have specific requirements, I suggest that you use the JavaScript engine already available to you: The one in your webbrowser. So, whether you write your code locally in a simple text editor and open it in the browser, use an IDE and have it launch the webbrowser for you, or write the code in one of the online editors and test it directly from there, you are good to go.

On the other hand, if you already know that you will want to use JavaScript outside of the browser, e.g. through Node.js, you should go and download that. It's not within the scope of this tutorial though - we only discuss the language.

Summary

JavaScript is nice and easy to get started with - all you need is a simple text editor, like Notepad for Windows or any built-in alternative for Linux or Mac, and a webbrowser. With that in place, let's continue our journey of learning JavaScript.