Re:A look at asm.js and the future with WebAssembly
by saurik on Saturday January 16, 2016 @02:32AM
(#10914626)
...first using Visual Basic Script, JavaScript, ActiveX and Java, then basically just JavaScript. This half-baked language grew from a quick addition by Netscape to keep up with the competition into the center point of the modern web, being forced into roles it was never meant or designed for.
I don't see how JavaScript was designed to "keep up with the competition". Java came first, as part of Sun's HotJava browser, and later as a native plugin for Netscape using (I think) their proprietary NPAPI (though it might have simply been welded into the client, to support the next part). Then JavaScript was built by Netscape, with direct access to Java via LiveConnect. Finally, Microsoft, to support all the new features being dumped into the web by Netscape, added VBA to Internet Explorer as "VBScript" with a separate JavaScript-compatible-ish syntax called JScript. (Later, under pressure from Microsoft, Netscape worked with them to file an international standard.) JavaScript was not a way to catch up: it was a game changing move, and one of the great innovations of Netscape (as opposed to most of the stuff they either implemented or refused to implement, which led to their delaying CSS and forcing HTML presentation markup on the world).
I don't see how JavaScript was designed to "keep up with the competition". Java came first, as part of Sun's HotJava browser, and later as a native plugin for Netscape using (I think) their proprietary NPAPI (though it might have simply been welded into the client, to support the next part). Then JavaScript was built by Netscape, with direct access to Java via LiveConnect. Finally, Microsoft, to support all the new features being dumped into the web by Netscape, added VBA to Internet Explorer as "VBScript" with a separate JavaScript-compatible-ish syntax called JScript. (Later, under pressure from Microsoft, Netscape worked with them to file an international standard.) JavaScript was not a way to catch up: it was a game changing move, and one of the great innovations of Netscape (as opposed to most of the stuff they either implemented or refused to implement, which led to their delaying CSS and forcing HTML presentation markup on the world).