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JavaScript was created by Brendan Eich while working for Netscape in the early 1990s.
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The Early Days of JavaScript
Brendan Eich was the creator of JavaScript. He was also the co-founder of the Mozilla project, the Mozilla Foundation, and the Mozilla Corporation. Eich is also well-known for his work on the programming language Java.
Brendan Eich’s proposal
In May 1995, Brendan Eich was recruited from Netscape by Jim Clark, the founder of Silicon Graphics, to work on a new programming language for the web. The language was originally called Mocha, but was later renamed to LiveScript, and finally to JavaScript.
Eich wrote the first version of the JavaScript engine in 10 days, and it was released in beta form with Netscape Navigator 2.0 in September 1995. The final version of JavaScript 1.0 was released in 1996.
The first few versions of JavaScript
JavaScript was originally created in 1995 by Brendan Eich while he was working for Netscape. The original name for the language was Mocha, but it was later renamed to LiveScript, and then finally to JavaScript.
The first version of JavaScript (LiveScript) was released in beta form in September 1995, and the final version (JavaScript 1.0) was released in December of the same year.
JavaScript 1.1 was released in early 1996, and added support for events and cookies. JavaScript 1.2 was released later that year and added support for Java applets.
In 1997, Netscape submitted JavaScript to Ecma International (an international standards organization) for standardization. The standardized version of JavaScript is known as ECMAScript, and the first version (ECMAScript 1) was published in June 1997.
The latest version of ECMAScript is ECMAScript 2016 (published in June 2016), but most browsers still support only a subset of this specification.
JavaScript’s Standardization
JavaScript was originally created by Brendan Eich in 1995. It was standardized in the ECMAScript language specification in 1997.
ECMAScript
The JavaScript language was invented by Brendan Eich while working for Netscape Communications Corporation. It was originally released under the name Mocha, later renamed to LiveScript, and finally to JavaScript.
The first standardization of the JavaScript language was undertaken by European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA) in order to establish a single international programming language that could be used on any computer platform. The resulting standard, known as ECMAScript, has been implemented in numerous browsers and continues to evolve.
The process of standardization
JavaScript was created in 1995 by Brendan Eich, then working for Netscape Communications Corporation. In early 1996, Eich was joined by Tom Paquin, Scott Gessin, and Lippert to continue work on JavaScript for Navigator 2.0B3.
The goal of the language was to provide a “glue” language for applications like Netscape Navigator that ran complex plug-in applications like Adobe Photoshop or Macromedia Dreamweaver. Standardizing JavaScript through Ecma International helped the language spread quickly and become widely adopted.
In November 1996, Ecma International published the first edition of the ECMAScript standard. The standard has been updated several times since then; the latest version is ECMAScript 2020 (ES2020).
JavaScript Today
JavaScript was created in 1995 by Brendan Eich while working for Netscape. It was originally going to be called Mocha, but was renamed to LiveScript, and then finally to JavaScript. JavaScript was first released with Netscape Navigator 2.0 in 1995.
New features in recent versions of JavaScript
Over the years, JavaScript has become more and more popular, both with web developers and web users. Newer versions of the language have added many features that make JavaScript more powerful and easier to use.
One of the most important additions in recent years has been support for modules. Modules are a way to structure your code so that it is easy to reuse. With modules, you can import other files of code into your own code, and you can export values from your code so that they can be used by other files.
JavaScript also now has support for classes. Classes provide a way to create objects with certain properties and methods. This makes it easier to create complex applications with JavaScript.
Another important addition is support for Promises. Promises provide a way to write asynchronous code so that it is easy to read and less error-prone. With Promises, you can write code that will do one thing after another thing has finished, without having to worry aboutCallback functions.
Finally, recent versions of JavaScript have added support for async/await. Async/await is a way of writing asynchronous code that makes it look like synchronous code. This makes asynchronous code much easier to read and understand.
The role of JavaScript in web development
JavaScript is a high-level, interpreted programming language that is characterized as dynamic, weakly typed, prototype-based and multi-paradigm. Alongside HTML and CSS, JavaScript is one of the core technologies of the World Wide Web. JavaScript enables interactive web pages and thus is an essential part of web applications. The vast majority of websites use it for client-side page behavior, and all major web browsers have a dedicated JavaScript engine to execute it.
As a multi-paradigm language, JavaScript supports event-driven, functional, and imperative programming styles. It has an API for working with text, arrays, dates and regular expressions, but does not include any I/O, such as networking, storage or graphics facilities, relying for these upon the host environment in which it is embedded.
Initially only implemented client-side in web browsers, JavaScript engines are now embedded in many other types of host software, including server-side in web servers and databases; in non-web programs such as word processors and PDF software; and in runtimes that make JavaScript available for writing mobile apps, desktop apps, eco-systems (like node.js) and microcontrollers.
