History of JavaScript
2 min read
From Web, Server-Side, and Mobile to AI, today JavaScript is everywhere. You name any famous technology and you'll find one JavaScript somehow there. So it is interesting to know how this amazing language evolved. So let's see how JavaScript came into the picture and marked its presence.
The Beginning
JavaScript was invented by Brendan Eich in 1995. It was developed for Netscape 2 and became the ECMA-262 standard in 1997. In 1996, Netscape and Brendan Eich took JavaScript to the ECMA International Standards Organization, and a technical committee (TC39) was created to develop the language.
ES6 was a huge success, it was released in 2015, and all the major browsers were fully compliant by March 2017. Initially, JavaScript was designed as a scripting language for use with a flagship browser, Netscape Navigator. Initially known as LiveScript, Netscape changed the name to JavaScript so they could position it as a companion for Java language. Apart from some superficial similarities though, JavaScript is in no way related to the Java Programming Language.
After its release, more and more browsers started adding JavaScript support. Its earliest releases suffered from notable performance and security issues, but developers had no choice without JavaScript. If they wanted to run programs in the browser, they had to use JavaScript.
The Major Turning Point
In 2008, the creation of Google's open-source Chrome V8, a high-performance JavaScript engine, provided a crucial turning point for JavaScript. Google's fast JavaScript engine made it possible for developers to build sophisticated browser-based applications with desktop and mobile applications.
Soon after, Ryan Dahl released an open-source, cross-platform environment called Node.js
Node.js provided a way to run JavaScript code from outside a browser. It freed JavaScript from the browser's confines and led directly to JavaScript's current popularity.
Today, we can use JavaScript to write all kinds of applications, including browser, server, mobile, and desktop apps.
Jai Hind, Vande Mataram 🇮🇳