The History of JavaScript
As I have delved further and further into my coding journey, I have inevitably developed a passion for the history surrounding the skill. The internet as well as coding languages like JavaScript we see today are far more complex than what was initially conceived in the 90s. With that said, exploring the journey of JavaScript through the years is instrumental in developing an appreciation for its current iteration as well as the process of its development as a whole.
The advent of ECMAScript was born out of developers’ desire to have consistent functionality across multiple browsers. In the 1990s, Netscape and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer were the two prominent web browsers available for use. Prior to ECMAScript developers would have to choose which browser to properly build their website on. This was due to Netscape using JavaScript in its implementation, whereas Microsoft used its in-house implementation known as “Jscript”. One can imagine why this would be undesirable especially considering our web browser options have vastly expanded since then. In order to rectify this issue, Netscape employed the help of the nonprofit organization Ecma International who instituted standardizations to JavaScript that developers could adhere to across multiple browsers.
Despite Netscape’s push for the standardization of JavaScript, Internet Explorer’s popularity was able to prevail over Netscape’s. As a result, Jscript became the industry standard for a few years. JavaScript's prominence reemerged with the company Mozilla releasing the web browser Firefox. This company also followed in Netscape’s footsteps by reaching out to Ecma International to put out a more sophisticated standardization of the language. The burgeoning idea of being able to use JavaScript to incorporate all aspects of full stack development made the language increasingly popular among developers in the coding world. This idea was expanded upon by the introduction of libraries like jQuery which expanded the dynamic aspects of a webpage in a revolutionary way.
With the creation of the library jQuery, developers were able to interact with the DOM in a more effective way as well as incorporate dynamic coding via features like event listeners. Prior to jQuery web pages remained mostly static as there was no formal way to implement active web pages. In order to make the transfer from static web pages, jQuery also brought forth AJAX to help abstract server interaction between the browser and the web page.
AJAX was at the core of making a web page dynamic due to its ability to not interfere with the onscreen display but rather process information behind the scenes. The term AJAX was coined by Jesse James Garrett who at the time explained it as the culmination of JavaScript, HTML and CSS, JSON(XML at the time), and the XMLHttpRequest (Garrett). These distinctions helped usher JavaScript to the forefront of essential coding languages, and eventually Jscript met the same fate as Internet Explorer.
These building blocks were landmark aspects in the development of the modern JavaScript we have come to know today. Ecma International’s influence helped standardize the language across multiple web browsers. New web browser’s persistence in using the language over Jscript kept it around long enough for the language to be expanded on with the implementation of web applications. JavaScript today has flourished as one of the most essential languages for full stack development.
Works Cited:
https://courses.cs.washington.edu/courses/cse490h/07sp/readings/ajax_adaptive_path.pdf
