JavaScript Overview

As part of my Ajax research, I'm learning more about JavaScript and figured I'd create a separate post for JavaScript.

JavaScript is a object-oriented scripting language, often used within web browsers and HTML pages. JavaScript was originally created by a Netscape (remember them?!) Navigator developer. Microsoft, not to be outdone, entered into the scene with their own version called JScript (you know, kind of like the J++/J# to Sun's Java) for Internet Explorer 3.0.

Given the confusion between JavaScript and JScript within the developer community, a third-party council - European Computer Manufacturers Association - agreed upon a "common" scripting language between the two called ECMAScript - still commonly known as JavaScript within the developer community.

The convergence of all three versions of scripting is a work in progress, but the core of the language is becoming very similar. Here's a good place to start in understanding each language.