A Brief History of JavaScript

JavaScript (which began as Netscape's Mocha) was created in 1995 by Brendan Eich to allow HTML developers to write scripts in their webpages. Read this article to learn about features and functionality that supported the early development of the language. These included a Java-like syntax, basic data types, and objects with classes.

Programming the browser


Java 
  • 1990: Java was developed at Sun Microsystems to replace C++ 
  • 1994:  The "Oak" programming language, originally developed for set-top boxes, is retargeted to the web for "applets" 
    • Java takes off and is the first memory safe language in widespread use 
JavaScript 
  • 1995:  Brendan Eich develops the "Mocha" programming language at Netscape; Mocha is renamed "LiveScript" and then "JavaScript" 
    • JavaScript takes off and is included in the Microsoft's IE browser
  • 1996: JavaScript is submitted to ECMA as a standard
Today
  • Java still dominates server-side while JS dominates client-side and is also making inroads into server-side (eg, node.js)

Source: Daniel Jackson, https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-170-software-studio-spring-2013/lecture-notes/MIT6_170S13_32-java-intro.pdf
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