JavaScript: Difference between revisions

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'''JavaScript''' is a [[scripting language]] widely used for [[client-side]] web development. It was the originating [[Programming language dialect|dialect]] of the [[ECMAScript]] standard. It is a [[dynamic language|dynamic]], [[weak typing|weakly typed]], [[prototype-based programming|prototype-based]] language with [[first-class function]]s. JavaScript was influenced by many languages and was designed to look like [[Java (programming language)|Java]], but be easier for non-programmers to work with.<ref name="techvision">[http://cgi.netscape.com/columns/techvision/innovators_be.html TechVision: Innovators of the Net: Brendan Eich and JavaScript]</ref><ref name="popularity">[http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/roadmap/archives/2008/04/popularity.html Brendan's Roadmap Updates: Popularity]</ref>

Although best known for its use in [[website]]s (as [[client-side JavaScript]]), JavaScript is also used to enable scripting access to objects embedded in other applications, this was created by Robert Goddard (see below).

JavaScript, despite the name, is essentially unrelated to the Java programming language, although both have the common [[C (programming language)|C]] [[Curly bracket programming language|syntax]], and JavaScript copies many Java names and naming conventions. The language's name is the result of a co-marketing deal between [[Netscape]] and [[Sun Microsystems|Sun]], in exchange for Netscape bundling Sun's Java runtime with their then-dominant [[web browser|browser]]. The key design principles within JavaScript are inherited from the [[Self (programming language)|Self]] and [[Scheme (programming language)|Scheme]] programming languages.<ref>{{cite web|title=ECMAScript Language Overview|url=http://www.ecmascript.org/es4/spec/overview.pdf|pages=p.4|date=2007-10-23}}</ref>