Easy introduction to JavaScript

By: Charlotte Bistodeau

Image created with Google AI

There are around 1300 programming languages in existence today but there are only a few that are most commonly used. I’m going to take you through the base languages of coding (HTML/CSS) and the most popular coding language (JavaScript) to give you a better understanding of something few stop to learn about.

HTML/CSS

HTML or HyperText Markup Language, is a markup language that’s used to give structure and meaning to web content and is the standard markup language for creating web pages. HTML consists of a series of elements that tell the browser, or a web page, how to display content. For example, defining paragraphs, headings, data tables, embedding images and videos into the web page. 

Example of HTML:

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html>

<head>

<title>Page Title</title>

Etc. etc.

CSS or Cascading Style Sheets, is a language of style rules that describe how HTML elements are going to be displayed on the web page or other media. Stated simply, CSS is a coding language used to style a Web page. CSS can also be used to control the layout of multiple web pages at once which saves the coder a lot of work. For example, CSS is used for setting background colors and fonts, and laying out content in multiple columns.

Example of CSS:

body {

    background-color: lightblue;

}

h1   {

    color:  white;

    text-align:  center;

}

Etc. etc.

JavaScript 

JavaScript is an easy programming language to learn, the most popular and the most used in the world. JavaScript is a scripting language that allows you to give web pages interactive elements and implement complex features such as dynamically updating content, control multimedia, animate images, timely content updates, interactive maps, pop-up menus, clickable buttons, and a lot more. JavaScript uses a combination of basic HTML and CSS to make the web page function.

JavaScript isn’t only good at making web pages but it’s also a great tool to start game development. Because Javascript is easy to learn and understand and can be used just about anywhere, it’s a great way to start game development of smaller games. JavaScript is not only used by beginners, but intermediates and also advanced coders, making it a great starter language for coding and programming. 

Example of JavaScript:

<!DOCTYPE  html>

<button type=”button”

onclick=”document.getElementById(‘demo’).innerHTML  =  Date()”>

Click me to display Date and Time.</button>

<p  id=”demo”></p>

Etc. etc.

Out of all 1300 coding languages, these three are the simplest and most basic programming languages to learn. There are plenty of better coding languages for specific things such as C++ being a much better option for developing an open world game than JavaScript because C++ was built exactly for that sort of thing. But if you’re looking to get into coding then I can wholeheartedly recommend JavaScript to you.

Lawyer X

By: Baarika Suresh

In an effort to try to bring certain legal cases to light, this is the 1st of a possible series of articles on cases that deal with legal ethics.

Cover of a book that was written about this case

A scandal like no other, Lawyer X was a royal commission in Victoria, Australia created to examine the actions of Nicola Gobbo and the Victorian police working as a lawyer and acting as a registered informer. The police fought hard to keep Gobbo’s identity a secret and she was a target for the clients she defended, but also did not want to jeopardize their high profile convictions. The scandal took many years to play out, and left the premier of the time, Daniel Andrews, with no choice but to call a royal commission into the events.

In response to the royal commission judgment by Ms. Margaret McMurdo it was revealed that Lawyer X received 3 million dollars plus other payments from Victoria Police for providing information about her clients whilst she was representing them. McMurdo found that police “tolerated bending the rules to help solve serious crime” and that the police claimed that the reason they waited to get legal advice on Gobbo was because “they did not want to be told they could not use Gobbo the way they intended”.

The fact that Gobbo was representing her clients while also informing about them clearly violates attorney client privilege, making most of the cases an unfair trial. She made a name for herself during the Melbourne gangland killings, but was first registered as an informer when she was just a law student, giving the police information about her drug dealer boyfriend/housemate. She was also a registered informer on a colleague who she claimed was laundering money.

This brings the question of ethics to mind: Where is the bar set that violating attorney client privilege is ok? In response to the royal commission, policies were discussed requiring those who might come into the possession of legally privileged information, to be approved by the Victoria Police ethics committee before being registered as an informer.

In total, the royal commission heard from 82 witnesses, including over 50 police officers during the 129 days of hearings. The full transcripts of the royal commission are available online.

For more information, please visit:

‘It Ends With Us’

By: Sophie Elmstrom & Lily Sheldon

‘It Ends with Us’ came out on August 9, 2024. This movie was based on the 2016 novel by Colleen Hoover, and the film was directed by Justin Baldoni. The film stars Jason Baldoni, Blake Lively, Jenny Slate, and Hasan Minhaj. The movie received mixed reviews, but it was a box office success, grossing 346.4 million worldwide against a production budget of 25 million. We wanted to give our thoughts on this movie, and compare it to the reviews of others.

Here’s a quick rundown of the movie. Lily Bloom (Blake Lively) moves to Boston to pursue her dream of opening her own business after the passing of her father. In Boston, she meets neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid, and they start to fall in love. As their relationship develops, Ryle starts to remind Lily of her parents’ relationship and the abusive tendencies of her father. Lily is at a dinner with Ryle, when she discovers that her high school sweetheart, Atlas, is the owner of the restaurant. Old feelings for Atlas begin to bubble up again, and Lily is stuck with an impossible choice to choose between Atlas and Ryle. Ryle hears about Atlas, and becomes enraged and jealous. He takes out his anger on Lily in forms of domesticated abuse. Lily reveals to Ryle about her father’s abuse to her mother and Lily escapes Ryle, and seeks out Atlas for help. She discovers she is pregnant, and moves out and lives with Atlas for a little. Lily asks for a divorce from Ryle, and he agrees after she asks Ryle how their daughter would react if she was abused by her partner. Lily hopes she has ended the cycle of abuse in her family, telling her daughter “It ends with Us”.

The movie also has a series of flashbacks where we go back in time to when Lily was in high school. One day, Lily is looking out her window and sees a boy her age coming out of the abandoned house next door. As she is walking to her bus she sees him at the stop as well. This sparks Lily to leave supplies at the door of this house in hope of helping this man out. Lily and this boy start talking to each other and Lily finds out his name is Atlas. These two end up falling in love with each other when suddenly Atlas moves away and they don’t continue to talk.

This movie received a 6.5/10 from IMDB and a 57% from Rotten Tomatoes. We believe that this ranking is just a little too low; we think this movie deserves an 8/10. Many reviews agree with the rating of 6.5/10, they believe that the story is very flat and not interesting. Many disagree with what we believed about how it is similar to the book, they said that it missed many book details.

As individuals who have read this book, we believe that movie did a very good job at portraying these characters and the story. Although there are controversies with this movie we believe that the movie was very good and interesting. The way that they portrayed Ryles’ character was very similar and the casting was very good in our opinion.

Overall, we believe that this movie deserves a 7/10 because although it wasn’t a perfect movie it was a very good book adaptation.

You can watch this movie on Prime Video.