A Ninja Programming Environment

A ninja needs very little to program JavaScript. All one needs is a text editor and a web browser such as Firefox, Opera, Internet Explorer, Safari, or Chrome.

JavaScript Version

We’ll be using version 5 of ECMAScript in this article and assume that you are using a modern browser (try to update to the latest version of whichever is your favorite). You can’t always rely on users to have the latest version, though, so we’ll also try to point out when some of the code will fail to work in older browsers.

Text Editor 

If you are using Windows, Notepad will work just fine. If you find it a bit too basic, you might want to try Notepad++, E Text Editor, UltraEdit, or Sublime Text.

If you are using a Mac, options include the built-in TextEdit, Text Wrangler, TextMate, or Atom text editor. You could also use Sublime Text. 

If you are using Linux, you’ll be fine with the built-in text editor (such as Gedit, Genie, Kate, Vim, or Emacs), or you could also use E Text Editor or Sublime Text. 

You can also consider an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) such as Eclipse, Coda, NetBeans, or the online Cloud 9.

Another interesting option is Brackets, which is free, cross-platform, and even written in JavaScript!

Browser Console

Nearly every browser can run JavaScript and most modern browsers now include a JavaScript console that can be used to run snippets of JavaScript code. Here are some instructions on how to launch a JavaScript console in some of the more popular browsers:

Chrome

View > Developer > JavaScript Console, or press Command + Option + J (Mac) or Control + Shift + J (Windows/Linux)

Safari

Press Command + Option + I  

Internet Explorer

Press F12 to open the developer tools. Click the Console tab. 

FireFox

Press CTRL + SHIFT + K to open the web console (on Windows) or COMMAND + SHIFT + K (on Macs).

Alternatives

You could install the Firebug add-on, press F12 to open Firebug, and click on the Console tab.