The History of JavaScript

 

The History of JavaScript

JavaScript is everywhere, and for the seventh year in a row, it has been ranked the most commonly used programming language, with 67.8% of developers employing it in 2019. Its ascent to the world’s most popular programming language is synonymous with the rise of the internet itself.

Created out of necessity, it is used to build 95.2% (1.52 billion) of websites today, including some of the world’s largest, like Facebook and YouTube. Without it, we would not have popular and useful web apps such as Google Maps and eBay. 

So, without further ado, let’s take a look at what JavaScript is,  how and why it was created, and what’s next for the language.

What Is JavaScript?

JavaScript is a scripting language that is one of the three core languages used to develop websites. Whereas HTML and CSS give a website structure and style, JavaScript lets you add functionality and behaviors to your website, allowing your website’s visitors to interact with content in many imaginative ways.

JavaScript is primarily a client-side language, meaning it runs on your computer within your browser. However, more recently the introduction of Node.js has allowed JavaScript to also execute code on servers.

Since its release, JavaScript has surpassed Java, Flash, and other languages because it is relatively easy to learn, has a free and open community, and, most importantly, is incredibly useful, allowing developers to quickly create apps with audiences in the millions.

ECMAScript Is Born

In 1997, due to JavaScript’s rapid growth, it became clear that the language would need to be properly maintained and managed. Therefore, Netscape handed the job of creating a language specification to the European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA), a body founded with the goal of standardizing computing. The ECMA specifications were labeled ECMA-262 and ECMAScript languages included JavaScript, JScript, and ActionScript.

Between 1997 and 1999, ECMA-262 had three revisions, but nearly 10 years later, version 4 was abandoned due to differing opinions on the direction of the language and its proposed features. Interestingly, many of these controversial features, such as generators, iterators, and destructuring assignments, have been included in more recent ECMAScript specifications.

JavaScript Today

A series of JavaScript frameworks and libraries, such as Ember, Angular, React, and Vue, have been developed to allow powerful and complicated web applications to be written using small teams within short time spans. Alongside client and server software, it is now even possible to write native mobile apps using JavaScript. Unsurprisingly, this is becoming increasingly popular due to the ability to share code between the worlds of mobile and web.

With all this choice, it’s somewhat understandable that there has also been a movement toward a more grassroots, “vanilla” implementation of JavaScript. Web components, small reusable custom browser elements, are the latest challenger aiming to be the next breakthrough in the JavaScript world. Whatever the next big thing is, it’s clear that JavaScript is going to be with us for many years to come.

Note: The first ever JavaScript was created by Brendan Eich at Netscape, and has since been updated to conform to ECMA-262 Edition 5 and later versions.

Why JavaScript is called JavaScript?

"The language's name is the result of a co-marketing deal between Netscape and Sun, in exchange for Netscape bundling Sun's Java runtime with their then-dominant browser." It was originally called Mocha, renamed to LiveScript, and then renamed to JavaScript.

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