Where JavaScript Came From

If JavaScript isn't related to Java, then why do they have such similar names? It's another example of one of the computer industry's most annoying traits: the triumph of marketing over substance.

When Netscape added some basic scripting abilities to its Navigator Web browser, it originally called that scripting language LiveScript. Around the same time, Java was getting lots of press as the Next Big Thing In Computing. When Netscape revised Navigator to run Java applets in Navigator 2, it also renamed LiveScript to JavaScript, hoping that some of Java's glitter would rub off. The mere fact that JavaScript and Java were very different programming languages didn't stop Netscape's marketing geniuses, and ever since then, writers like us have made good money explaining that JavaScript and Java are very different things. Come to think of it, maybe we should be thanking those marketeers.

When Microsoft saw that JavaScript was becoming popular among Web developers, it realized that it would have to add some sort of scripting capabilities to Internet Explorer. It could have adopted JavaScript, but as is so often the case, Microsoft instead built its own language that works much like JavaScript but is not exactly the same. This Microsoft version of JavaScript is called JScript.