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Blast from the past: a history of our favorite language
Emberton, 1/27/2004 -
How we got 'ere.
"JavaScript. Spawned in 1995 by the need to make Netscape Navigator's newly added support for Java applets more accessible to non-Java programmers and web designers, a powerful scripting language too often described as 'simple.' "Plagued in its early days by security flaws, crippled by a lack of powerful development tools such as integrated development environments, debuggers, and meaningful error messages, extended to contexts that range far beyond the initial intent of its designers, and saddled with the legacy of incompatible browser object models, JavaScript has suffered for years at the hands of those who would criticize it for being too unlike Java, or too much like Perl, or too often used by well-meaning but otherwise ignorant web designers, shoehorned into pages without thought of future compatibility, intelligent abstraction, or code reuse. "Yet it is by far the most popular language on the Web, the foundation for the next generation of dynamic client-side Web applications, a solid core with amazing potential and power. So why don't more programmers view JavaScript as an essential part of their toolbox? Let's look at the history of JavaScript (née LiveScript) and take a good, hard look at where it came from -- and where it is going." ... "Companies such as Blox, KnowNow, and others are using client-side JavaScript in combination with intelligent server-side tools to deliver the next generation of Web-based applications. Even Microsoft, with all the ballyhoo about C#, seems to have recognized the power of JavaScript: Pick any MSDN sample application or one-off script, and odds are it's written at least partly in JavaScript. Java has suffered at the hands of internecine and highly publicized feuds between Sun and, well, pretty much everyone. VBScript is being abandoned by Microsoft, but the compiled C# can't be expected to fill the ever-needed role of scripting language. JavaScript has conquered the Web. So why don't you know more about it? What is there to know? How should you begin to address your long-standing neglect of this powerful and mature language?" Read the rest at O'Reilly Network: JavaScript -- How did we get here? JavaScript and ActionScript really have a strange relationship. Although in its current form, ActionScript is more or less ECMAScript 3, it started out as something totally different. But it's interesting to go back and take a look at the language we're using nowadays and reflect on where it came from. Some other interesting articles: JavaScript: The Wrrrld's Most Misunderstood Programming Language Higher-Order Programming in JavaScript
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