<Script War/>!
Static to Dynamic websites! An introduction about how the web scripting languages came along!
Well..well well….. how to start this? Yeah, let’s go like this..! I know that you may don’t need any introduction to either computers or the internet. So in that near history where right after the internet was introduced to humans by some extraordinary humans …. The websites were not soo cool as you see today… Basically, all of them were static! Woah…..! What is a static web page..?
Let’s see……“In a sense, a static Web page is just a simple purveyor of information. Designers often use a combination of text and images, controlled by HTML tags, to render something that is a lot like a newspaper page. It has typesetting and layout, but it does not change from one load to another.”
“Another way to understand static Web pages is to contrast them with dynamic Web pages. The latter have controls and forms that are deep coded so that the page displays differently to different users or in different situations. For example, a dynamic Web page may access a database to find out about a user’s identification and history, or to display custom items like the user’s name or his/her collected preferences. In contrast, a static Web page does not provide this kind of customization.” All right…..! Now you know what a Static web page is right now!! Not only that, I have mentioned that there, what is a Dynamic website..! So guys we are ready to go….! So we’re gonna find out how that Static ancestor became a modern Dynamic Beast..! With the blessing of Script War!!! Actually, we’re gonna find out how the ECMA Script came (simply Java Script) the actual creator of Dynamic websites these days!
Let’s go..! So.. All started in the early 90s, 1995 actually. The people who ran the Netscape web browser (No I don’t even see that browser too), needed a new look for websites. Yeah! a dynamic look…At that time HTML was still young and simple enough for non-developers to pick up. So whatever was to be part of the browser to make the web more dynamic should be accessible to non-programmers. And they created a scripting language….! Can you guess what that was………………………??
Nah …..that wasn’t the Java Script….! That was “Mocha”. Netscape invented Mocha within 10 days…! Yes, they took only 10 days! So Mocha was not like Scheme at all. It looked like a dynamic Java, but underneath it was a very different beast: a premature lovechild of Scheme and Self, with Java looks. The prototype of Mocha was integrated into Netscape Communicator in May 1995. In a short time, it was renamed LiveScript. At the moment, the word “live” was convenient from a marketing point of view. Ta-da……..! In December 1995, Netscape Communications and Sun closed a deal: Mocha/LiveScript would be renamed JavaScript, and it would be presented as a scripting language for small client-side tasks in the browser, while Java would be promoted as a bigger, professional tool to develop rich web components.
Guys…..! We are in December of 1995 now, 4 months prior today Microsoft invented your favorite browser!! “Internet Explorer…!” So the war began 4 months ago…!! Changing the name and the agreement with SUN; this plan didn’t stop Microsoft from taking over the web browser market and driving Netscape Communications out of business, Internet Explorer used their own scripting language for their browser. That was JScript (Not Java Script).. Netscape Navigator worked with JavaScript, Internet Explorer worked with JScript.The first version of JScript was included with Internet Explorer 3.0, released in August 1996. So the developers were unable to design pages that look good in both browsers, requiring a notification on web pages about which browser the page was designed for.
In JavaScript, functions are simply one more object type. They can be passed around just like any other element. They can be bound to variables, also in later versions, they can even be thrown as exceptions. This feature is a probable fact in JavaScript development.
In November of 1996 JavaScript released the first official language specification after submission to the ECMA International (European Computer Manufacturers Association) Actually That had 300,000 pages..! Enjoying a 95% market share with Explorer, Microsoft stops working with ECMA International on its JScript language since JScript has become the default client-side scripting. In 2002 Mozilla released Firefox which eventually led to the rise of JavaScript again. Firefox was a popular browser that began to take market share from Internet Explorer. In 2004, Mozilla began working with ECMA International on standardization, but no new specifications were released because of Microsoft’s continued refusal to collaborate because they had their own JScript. But with time Microsoft had to agree with the standardization…! Ops….!
For trademark reasons, The ECMA committee was not able to use JavaScript as the name…actually alternative Scripting language guys were not liked by many either, by the way, language described by the standard called ECMA Script today…! In 1997 the First version of the ECMA Script was introduced so in 2021 we have the 12th edition now.!
So you should remember once Microsoft came to the stage with their own JScript….In the beginning, they actually refused to agree with the ECMA Script Standardization…However, finally, they had to…!
Did they defeat the war….?
No, I don’t think so… They were raised by the burning desire to be the boss! So they came with TypeScript this time….!
“ Wait ..! what..! TypeScript..??? “
“What is that..?”
That’s the beginning of another chapter of the web apps…..! Of course another article…! 😉
