JavaScript

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File Format
Name JavaScript
Ontology
Extension(s) .js
MIME Type(s) text/javascript, application/javascript
PRONOM x-fmt/423
Released 1995

JavaScript (sometimes abbreviated JS) is a scripting language commonly implemented as part of a web browser in order to create enhanced user interfaces and dynamic websites, but also used in other contexts (such as server-side JavaScript). As a client-side language in a browser, JavaScript has access to a Document Object Model (DOM) which permits it to read and modify various aspects of the current web page.

This is not the same as Java. People constantly get confused about that.

JavaScript was originally developed at Netscape by Brendan Eich (who later became Mozilla CEO... very briefly), where it was originally called LiveScript while under development, but became JavaScript (with the name licensed from Sun) in order to capitalize on the popularity of Java, though the languages aren't really related (although there are some similarities in syntax). Later, a Microsoft implementation designed to be (more or less) compatible was called JScript, and an attempt at a formally standardized version of the language was published by ECMA as ECMAScript.

The node.js runtime environment is (mostly) implemented in JavaScript, as are applications running within it. It made JavaScript into a server-side language in addition to its traditional uses as a client-side language.

TypeScript is an extension of JavaScript with strong typing, which compiles into regular JavaScript.

React is an extension of JavaScript to support various methods of creating HTML elements and interacting with them, including embedding code resembling (but not quite identical to) HTML. This is another variant which is compiled into regular JavaScript for browser use.

Due to its status as the only scripting language for browsers, JavaScript skyrocketed in popularity in the 2000's and 2010's and as of 2017 serves as a lingua franca of Web development. Arguably, it is currently the world's most popular programming language (it tops GitHub and StackOverflow currently). A number of other languages have implementations that compile into JavaScript.

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