Web Design in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition

A Little Background

JavaScript is an object- and prototype-based programming language that got its start in 1995 as the creation of Brendan Eich at Netscape. It was originally named “Mocha” and then “LiveScript” before being confusingly re-christened JavaScript in conjunction with its release in Netscape Navigator 2.0 Beta 3 in December of 1995.

It is important to note that JavaScript is not Java. Both are similar to the C programming language and share a similar syntax, but that is pretty much where their similarity ends. The Java programming language was creating quite a stir in the computer world when Netscape was readying LiveScript for release, and, somehow, the decision was made to rename the language JavaScript to cash in on some of the buzz. Unfortunately, it did more to confuse the programming world than it did to improve the popularity of JavaScript.

JavaScript was standardized in 1996 when it was turned over to the European Computer Manufacturer’s Association (ECMA) for maintenance and further development. The latest version, JavaScript 1.5, arrived in 1999 and corresponds to ECMA-262 Edition 3. Consequently, JavaScript is sometimes referred to as ECMAScript.

Microsoft offers a competing language, VBScript , based on Visual Basic, but as it is only supported in Internet Explorer, it is a poor choice for the Web. It should also be noted that Microsoft offered its own port of JavaScript, JScript, which supports most of the standard JavaScript functions (albeit in sometimes ...