We're going to talk about this later, but first, let's have a look at the one of the most significant JavaScript web projects, jQuery. JavaScript also enjoyed further success as a language for website, application and mobile development. In the years since, it has became one of the essential building blocks of the web, and is found on almost every website, and is supported by almost every web browser. An earlier web browser, called ViolaOne year after the release of JavaScript, Microsoft ported it to Internet Explorer. It's worth noting that JavaScript wasn't the first web scripting language. Indeed, it was originally called LiveScript (and internally named Mocha), before being renamed in order to capitalize on the success and popularity of Java. Netscape wanted to create a programming language that was both easy to grasp for non-beginners, but would also allow the developer to exercise a greater control of what happens within the browser window.ĭeveloped in ten days by Brendan Eich, the man who ( albeit very briefly) would go on to lead Mozilla, it allowed developers to write code in a variety of styles (functional, imperative and object-oriented) in a language which closely resembled other popular languages of the day, such as Java, C++ and C.īut despite the name, it's important to stress that JavaScript has nothing to do with the popular Java programming language originally created by Sun Microsystems. Both companies had seen the massive potential of the Internet, and were trying to create the browser which would thrust it into the mainstream.

The other was the upstart Internet Explorer, by Microsoft. The first was Netscape, with their dominant Navigator product. And thus, at the offices of Netscape in 1995, JavaScript was born.īack then, the browser race was hotly contested between two players. Web pages were nothing more than words, links and pictures. In the beginning, the Web wasn't very interesting.īack then, there was only HTML.

As it turns out, JavaScript is amazingly powerful, and endlessly fascinating.

What is js