The Evolution of JavaScript: From a 10-Day Project to a Global Standard

Javascript

A brief and revolutionary history of JavaScript

1990s: Static Web and Lack of Interactivity

Back then, websites only had images, text, and content, but no interactivity. So people started looking for new things.

1995 – The Birth of JavaScript

“I was under marketing orders to make it look like Java but not make it too big for its britches. It’s just this sort of silly little brother language, right? The sidekick to Java.” — Brendan Eich

While working at Netscape , Brendan Eich was tasked with developing a dynamic programming language that could run inside the browser . The goal was to make web pages interactive and animated, something that HTML and CSS alone could not achieve.

Brendan Eich built it in just 10 days.

He took inspiration from three languages — Java, Self, and Scheme — to create JavaScript.

JavaScript's Original Names: First called Mocha, later renamed LiveScript , and finally became JavaScript – mainly for marketing purposes to capitalize on Java's popularity.

I am a Mocha developer ☕😄

1996 — Microsoft Joins the Party

Microsoft introduced its own version of JavaScript, JScript , in Internet Explorer. This led to the browser wars , with minor differences between Netscape's JavaScript and Microsoft's JScript causing headaches for developers .

Browser Wars . (Netscape Navigator — Internet Explorer)

• Both companies were using different JavaScript engines in their browsers.
• As a result, developers had to write extra code to ensure their scripts worked consistently across browsers.
• This caused major compatibility issues in the early days of web development.

⚠️ Cross-Browser Compatibility Issues

• Some JavaScript functions only worked in Internet Explorer.
• DOM manipulation relies on different APIs depending on the browser.
• For JavaScript developers, the dream of "write once, run anywhere" was far from reality.
• Developers are so upset :(

1997 — A Step Towards Standardization: The Birth of ECMAScript

Enter ECMA International

• Netscape submitted JavaScript to ECMA International, a European standards organization, in 1996 .
• Goal: To create a standard scripting language specification that all browsers can follow.
• The standard is maintained and developed by Technical Committee 39 (TC39) , a group of engineers from major technology companies .
• TC39 is still active today and is constantly improving the language.

ECMAScript 1 was first released in June 1997.

3. ECMAScript Standards and Key Versions

• ES1: Basic language structure.
• ES3: Error handling, RegExp improvements.
• ES5: Strict mode, JSON, array methods.
• ES6/ES2015: Let/const, arrow functions, classes, modules, promises.
• ES2016 and later: Async/await, optional chaining, BigInt, etc.

TC39 is a group of engineers from leading technology companies who develop JavaScript features from concept to release. The process is open on GitHub, allowing the community to contribute and foster reliable language development.

Here is the official ECMAScript specification repository on GitHub:

**https://github.com/tc39/ecma262**

And the TC39 organization page with all relevant repositories:

**https://github.com/tc39**

Good thing we have JavaScript, see you in the next scenario! 👋