QuickStart

Angular applications are made up of _components_. A _component_ is the combination of an HTML template and a component class that controls a portion of the screen. Here is an example of a component that displays a simple string:
Try this **QuickStart example on Plunker** without installing anything. Try it locally with the [***QuickStart seed***](guide/setup "Setup for local development with the QuickStart seed") and prepare for development of a real Angular application.
Every component begins with an `@Component` [decorator](guide/glossary#decorator '"decorator" explained') function that takes a _metadata_ object. The metadata object describes how the HTML template and component class work together. The `selector` property tells Angular to display the component inside a custom `` tag in the `index.html`. The `template` property defines a message inside an `

` header. The message starts with "Hello" and ends with `{{name}}`, which is an Angular [interpolation binding](guide/displaying-data) expression. At runtime, Angular replaces `{{name}}` with the value of the component's `name` property. Interpolation binding is one of many Angular features you'll discover in this documentation. In the example, change the component class's `name` property from `'Angular'` to `'World'` and see what happens.
A word about TypeScript

This example is written in TypeScript, a superset of JavaScript. Angular uses TypeScript because its types make it easy to support developer productivity with tooling. You can also write Angular code in JavaScript; [this guide](guide/ts-to-js] explains how.

### Next step Start the [**tutorial**](tutorial "Tour of Heroes tutorial").