What is JavaScript, really?

Posted by Lord Loh. on Programmers See other posts from Programmers or by Lord Loh.
Published on 2012-10-22T20:11:22Z Indexed on 2012/10/22 23:17 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 1059

Filed under:

JavaScript

|

ecmascript

All this started when I was looking for a way to test my webpage for JavaScript conformance like the W3C HTML Validator. I have not found one yet. So let me know if you know of any...

I looked for the official JavaScript page and find ECMA Script. These people have standardized a scripting language (I do not feel like calling it JavaScript anymore!) and called it ECMA-262 (Wikipedia). Their latest work is Edition 5.1
JavaScript was developed my Mozilla Corporation and their last stable version is 1.8.5 (see this) which is based on the ECMA's edition 5.1
The Wikipedia page linked mentions dialects. Mozilla's JavaScript 1.8.5 is listed as a dialect along with JScript 9 (IE) and JavaScript (Chrome's V8[Wiki]) and a lot others. Am I to understand that JavaScript 1.8.5 is a derivative of the ECMA-262 and SpiderMonkey[Wiki] is an engine that runs it? And Chrome has its own dialect and V8 engine is the program that runs it?

With all these dialects based off ECMA-262, what I can no longer understand is "What is JavaScript"? Are there any truly cross browser scripting languages? Do the various implementers come together to agree on the dialect cross compatibility? Is this effort ECMA?

© Programmers or respective owner

Related posts about JavaScript

CHAT ROOMs 7 by 6

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I am looking for chatroom on one page with 7 loggedin users and 6+rows for say 42 users.these users will keep on adding wthnew users.Need urgent help.A PRETTY UNUSUAL Q FOR MOST OF U.What is MORE REQ new features: Usernames are unique to users currently chatting You can see a "currently chatting"… >>> More
Integrating JavaScript Unit Tests with Visual Studio

as seen on Stephen Walter - Search for 'Stephen Walter'
Modern ASP.NET web applications take full advantage of client-side JavaScript to provide better interactivity and responsiveness. If you are building an ASP.NET application in the right way, you quickly end up with lots and lots of JavaScript code. When writing server code, you should be writing… >>> More
Has Javascript developed beyond what it was originally designed to do?

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
I've been talking with a friend about the purpose of Javascript, when and how it should be used, etc. He quoted that: JavaScript was designed to add interactivity to HTML pages [...] JavaScript gives HTML designers a programming tool HTML authors are normally not programmers… >>> More
PHP, javascript, single quote problems with IE when passing variable from ajax post to javascript fu

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hi! I have been trying to get this to work for a while, and I suspect there's an easy solution that I just can't find. My head feels like jelly and I would really appreciate any help. My main page.php makes a .post() to backend.php and fetches a list of cities which it echoes in the form of: <li… >>> More
Javascript in XSL that is loaded by Javascript

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Is there anyway to have javascript run when a XSL sheet has been applied to an XML file by Javascript? I am using a JQuery plugin to apply the sheet to the xml but the javascript that is located inside of the XSL file will not run. I put the Javascript at the bottom of the file and it still does… >>> More

Related posts about ecmascript

Why were namespaces removed from ECMAScript consideration?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Namespaces were once a consideration for ECMAScript (the old ECMAScript 4) but were taken out. As Brendan Eich says in this message: One of the use-cases for namespaces in ES4 was early binding (use namespace intrinsic), both for performance and for programmer comprehension -- no chance… >>> More
translating Ecmascript (Java,javascript,Actionscript) knowledge to Objective C

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hi Newcomer to Objective C and trying to translate concepts and sytax I know from ecmascript based languages to Objective C. Is it proper to think of the .h header file in ObjectiveC as an Interface in Actionscript? Lets take the following code example in Objective C which calls a method containing… >>> More
EcmaScript 5 browser implementation

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
So Safari and Chrome have started in their betas to implement some ES5 stuff. For instance Object.create is in them. Do any of you know if there is a website that shows the progress made in the browsers? ATM i need to use Object.freeze, and wanted to see which browsers (if any) supported that yet. >>> More
from ObjectiveC to ECMAscript

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Going thru the excellent Apress books on Objective C. To help in my undertanding, I try and recode any Ojective C code samples in Java/Action-script. One common structure in method calls in ObjC leaves me a bit puzzled. -(id) initWithPressure: (float) pressure treadDepth: (float) treadDepth; (in… >>> More
What is JavaScript, really?

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
All this started when I was looking for a way to test my webpage for JavaScript conformance like the W3C HTML Validator. I have not found one yet. So let me know if you know of any... I looked for the official JavaScript page and find ECMA Script. These people have standardized a scripting language… >>> More