welcome back for our second topic of discussion let's understand about Chrome's V8 engine let me Begin by mentioning that the JavaScript code we write cannot be understood by the computer we need what is called a JavaScript engine a JavaScript engine is a program that converts JavaScript code that developers write into machine code that allows a computer to perform specific tasks in simple terms a JavaScript engine can execute JavaScript code JavaScript engines are typically developed by web browser vendors and every major browser has one following is the list of the different JavaScript engines for each major browser V8 which is the open source JavaScript engine developed by Google for Chrome spider monkey the JavaScript engine covering Firefox JavaScript core which is the JavaScript engine developed by Apple for Safari and finally chakra which is the JavaScript engine for the original Microsoft Edge in this list our interest lies in the V8 engine by Google as it is what sits at the core of node.js let's spend a few minutes to see what we can understand about it I'm here at v8.dev where we can find all the information related to the V8 engine I click on Docs scroll down and click on checking out the V8 source code here I'll click on the GitHub repo link here I'll scroll down to the readme section where I want to go over a few points first point we see V8 is Google's open source JavaScript engine we have just learned a JavaScript engine can execute JavaScript code so hopefully this point makes sense second Point V8 implements ecmascript as specified in ecma 262 in the previous video we've learned that ekma 262 is the standard language specification and ecmascript is the language that implements it hopefully this point also needs no further explanation and you can see how we are slowly building a knowledge of prerequisites for the next video let's now move on to the third point which might come off as a surprise to some of you V8 is written in C plus plus and is used in Google Chrome that's right the code for the V8 engine is written in C plus plus and not JavaScript very important to keep in mind as the fourth Point Builds on top of that V8 can run stand alone or can be embedded into any c plus application so you can use V8 engine as is to execute some JavaScript or if you have your own C plus program you can embed V8 into that program and this last point is what helped with the creation of node.js by embedding V8 into your own C plus application you can write C plus plus code that gets executed when a user writes JavaScript code in other words you can add new features to JavaScript itself and since C plus plus is great for lower level operations like file handling database connections and network operations by embedding V8 into your own C plus program you have the power to add all of that functionality in JavaScript here the C plus plus program we are talking about is nothing but node.js now I know this is a lot to take in so please re-watch this video if you have to on the other hand if all of this makes sense let me quickly summarize the points so a JavaScript engine is a program that executes JavaScript code in 2008 Google created its own JavaScript engine called V8 V8 is written in C plus plus and can be used independently or can be embedded into other C plus programs that allows you to write your own C plus plus program which can do everything that V8 can do and more by that I mean to say your C plus plus program can run ecmascript and additional features that you choose to incorporate for example features that are available in C plus but not available in JavaScript which is the idea behind node.js all right if you've understood what the V8 engine is join me in the next video where we will finally understand what is a JavaScript runtime thank you for watching please do consider subscribing to the channel and I'll see you in the next one