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Netscape and Sun Announce JavaScript (1995)

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Re: Netscape and Sun Announce JavaScript (1995)

#91

Post by m_st »

ChrisRR wrote: post #81
acdha wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Marketing. Java was The Next Big thing and they wanted to jump on board that bandwagon. The direct integration wasn’t very common but a lot of the JavaScript objects had similar names (toString, etc.) and JS was commonly explained as a sort of junior relationship. Edit: expanding my not very common claim — I first started using JavaScript when it was called LiveScript in Netscape betas, the second non-static website…

It's very odd, if someone nowadays called their language CSharpScript, they'd get slapped with a C&D

According to the interview with Eich linked above: "Bill Joy at Sun was the champion of it, which was very helpful because that’s how we got the name." Sure helps :-)

Re: Netscape and Sun Announce JavaScript (1995)

#92

Post by astura »

ChrisRR wrote: post #81
acdha wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Marketing. Java was The Next Big thing and they wanted to jump on board that bandwagon. The direct integration wasn’t very common but a lot of the JavaScript objects had similar names (toString, etc.) and JS was commonly explained as a sort of junior relationship. Edit: expanding my not very common claim — I first started using JavaScript when it was called LiveScript in Netscape betas, the second non-static website…

It's very odd, if someone nowadays called their language CSharpScript, they'd get slapped with a C&D

Netscape had permission from Sun to use the "Java" name, it was a partnership.

This press release itself even says it in the first sentence

>Netscape Communications Corporation (NASDAQ: NSCP) and Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ:SUNW), today announced JavaScript

Re: Netscape and Sun Announce JavaScript (1995)

#93

Post by niek_pas »

optimalsolver wrote: post #61

It doesn't have to be this way. Hopefully Brython[0] which lets you do client-side Python scripting takes off. Imagine doing full stack web dev without seeing a single line of JS. [0] https://brython.info/

Brython has been around for _years_ now and AFAIK has not shown any signs of taking off.

I think you're better off placing your bets on newer ECMAscript features and full-conversion libraries like React.

Re: Netscape and Sun Announce JavaScript (1995)

#94

Post by toyg »

Kye wrote: post #2

Think of how the web would be different if Microsoft leaned its monopoly power on XMLHttpRequest. Would it have been the test case for API ownership instead of Java? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XMLHttpRequest

XHR is possibly Microsoft's "Xerox PARC" moment. They held the future in their hands and it just went through their fingers.

Re: Netscape and Sun Announce JavaScript (1995)

#95

Post by mabbo »

Orthw2020 wrote: post #19

What bothers me is that they actually never apologised. A simple statement of acknowledging the damage caused would do!

I think they understand the repercussions.

Imagine if you said that the pain and suffering of every developer for the last 25 years was largely your fault. There would be lawsuits. Class action. We'd all travel to come testify.

Re: Netscape and Sun Announce JavaScript (1995)

#97

Post by toyg »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #45
krapp wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, Javascript didn't require a compiler, and Java applets were notoriously slow.

I'm not sure JavaScript was any faster than Java at the time. I blame the failure of Java applets on Microsoft who deliberately undermined them.

JS was definitely faster, but it wasn't really used it in a modern sense anyway - just simple animations.

MS definitely had a lot to do with Java applets failing though; after SUN fought to avoid being embraced/extinguished by VisualJ++, MS just pushed their own ActiveX tech to do the same thing, which was inevitably more performant (because it was based on COM+ and other Windows-specific innards).

Re: Netscape and Sun Announce JavaScript (1995)

#98

Post by blakesterz »

toyg wrote: post #82
flohofwoe wrote: post #5

Nothing technically wrong with Java and JS of course, but this terrible PR piece which desperately tries to pitch Java as an integral part of the web, going even as far as naming an innocent scripting language for web browsers JAVA script truly demonstrates that the mid-to-end-90's were the dark age of computing (at least the corporate side).

It was actually a fairly exciting time...? OOP had really just broken into the mainstream (with Java, the first OOP to really take off) and would go on to become ubiquitous, spawning tons of little new languages (including Python). There were multiple vendors pushing VB-like products, some arguably better than MS itself, giving high levels of productivity (who some argue have never been achieved since). PCs had drama…

I agree with you, it really was exciting. It was almost like the opposite of the "Everything is awesome and no one is happy" time we're living in now?

Everything was awful, and everyone was happy. Remember being super excited the first time you saw an animated GIF!? Or you could mouse-over a picture and there would be a popup that said "hey don't touch my face"! Everything was slow and crashed all the time, but it was new and really interesting and fun. People were just figuring things out, and the new stuff that was coming out was amazing at the time. Everything was getting faster and better, but damn, it was hard to get anything done.

Re: Netscape and Sun Announce JavaScript (1995)

#99

Post by acdha »

ChrisRR wrote: post #81
acdha wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Marketing. Java was The Next Big thing and they wanted to jump on board that bandwagon. The direct integration wasn’t very common but a lot of the JavaScript objects had similar names (toString, etc.) and JS was commonly explained as a sort of junior relationship. Edit: expanding my not very common claim — I first started using JavaScript when it was called LiveScript in Netscape betas, the second non-static website…

It's very odd, if someone nowadays called their language CSharpScript, they'd get slapped with a C&D

This was voluntary. You have to remember that at the time the residing hype kings were the so-called 4GLs (e.g. Clarion, Clipper, PowerBuilder) and things like Visual Basic, Pascal (Delphi), etc. so Sun and Netscape were trying to present this as the pair of languages which you used to build the web, which was already emerging as the white-hot new thing starting to transform the world.
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