JavaScript

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Not to be confused with Java (programming language), Java
(software platform), or Javanese script.
For the uses of JavaScript on Wikipedia, see
Wikipedia:Javascript.
JavaScript
JavaScript
Paradigm Multi-paradigm: event-driven,[1] functional,
imperative, object-oriented (prototype-based)
Designed by Brendan Eich
Developer Netscape Communications Corporation, Mozilla
Foundation, Ecma International
First appeared December 4, 1995; 23 years ago[2]
Stable release
ECMAScript 2018[3] / June 2018; 8 months ago
Preview release
ECMAScript 2019
Typing discipline Dynamic, duck
Filename extensions
.js .mjs[4]
Website Mozilla
Major implementations
V8, JavaScriptCore, Rhino, SpiderMonkey, Chakra
Influenced by
AWK, C, HyperTalk, Java,[5] Lua, Perl, Python, Scheme, Self
Influenced
ActionScript, AtScript, CoffeeScript, Dart, JScript .NET,
LiveScript, Objective-J, Opa, Perl 6, QML, TypeScript
JavaScript at Wikibooks
JavaScript
Filename extension .js
Internet media type
application/javascript text/javascript (obsolete)[6]
Uniform Type Identifier (UTI) com.netscape.javascript-source
[7]
Developed by Brendan Eich
Type of format Scripting language
Part of a series on
JavaScript
JavaScript syntax
JavaScript engine
JavaScript libraries
Ajax frameworks
JavaScript frameworks
Unit testing frameworks
See also

JSON
ECMAScript
vte
JavaScript (/ˈdʒɑːvəˌskrɪpt/),[8] often abbreviated as JS, is a
high-level, interpreted programming language that conforms to the
ECMAScript specification. It is a language that is also
characterized as dynamic, weakly typed, prototype-based and
multi-paradigm.

Alongside HTML and CSS, JavaScript is one of the three core

technologies of the World Wide Web.[9] JavaScript enables
interactive web pages and thus is an essential part of web
applications. The vast majority of websites use it,[10] and all
major web browsers have a dedicated JavaScript engine to execute
it.

As a multi-paradigm language, JavaScript supports event-driven,

functional, and imperative (including object-oriented and
prototype-based) programming styles. It has APIs for working with
text, arrays, dates, regular expressions, and the DOM, but the
language itself does not include any I/O, such as networking,
storage, or graphics facilities, relying for these upon the host
environment in which it is embedded.

Initially only implemented client-side in web browsers,

JavaScript engines are now embedded in many other types of host
software, including server-side in web servers and databases, and
in non-web programs such as word processors and PDF software, and
in runtime environments that make JavaScript available for
writing mobile and desktop applications, including desktop
widgets.

The terms Vanilla JavaScript and Vanilla JS refer to JavaScript

not extended by any frameworks or additional libraries. Scripts
written in Vanilla JS are plain JavaScript code.[11][12]

Although there are similarities between JavaScript and Java,

including language name, syntax, and respective standard
libraries, the two languages are distinct and differ greatly in
design; JavaScript was influenced by programming languages such
as Self and Scheme.[13]

Contents
1 History
1.1 Beginnings at Netscape
1.2 Server-side JavaScript
1.3 Adoption by Microsoft
1.4 Standardization
1.5 Later developments
2 Trademark
3 Features
3.1 Universal support
3.2 Imperative and structured
3.3 Dynamic
3.4 Prototype-based (object-oriented)
3.5 Functional
3.6 Delegative
3.7 Miscellaneous
3.8 Vendor-specific extensions
4 Syntax
4.1 Simple examples
4.2 More advanced example
5 Use in Web pages
5.1 Example script
5.2 Compatibility considerations
6 Security
6.1 Cross-site vulnerabilities
6.2 Misplaced trust in the client
6.3 Misplaced trust in developers
6.4 Browser and plugin coding errors
6.5 Sandbox implementation errors
6.6 Hardware vulnerabilities
7 Uses outside Web pages
7.1 Embedded scripting language
7.2 Scripting engine
7.3 Application platform
8 Development tools
9 Benchmark tools for developers
10 Version history
11 Related languages and technologies
11.1 Use as an intermediate language
11.2 JavaScript and Java
11.3 WebAssembly
12 See also
13 References
14 Further reading
15 External links
History
Beginnings at Netscape
In 1993, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications
(NCSA), a unit of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
released NCSA Mosaic, the first popular graphical Web browser,
which played an important part in expanding the growth of the
nascent World Wide Web beyond the NeXTSTEP niche where the
WorldWideWeb had formed three years earlier. In 1994, a company
called Mosaic Communications was founded in Mountain View,
California and employed many of the original NCSA Mosaic authors
to create Mosaic Netscape. However, it intentionally shared no
code with NCSA Mosaic. The internal codename for the company's
browser was Mozilla, which stood for "Mosaic killer", as the
company's goal was to displace NCSA Mosaic as the world's number
one web browser. The first version of the Web browser, Mosaic
Netscape 0.9, was released in late 1994. Within four months it
had already taken three-quarters of the browser market and became
the main web browser for the 1990s. To avoid trademark ownership
problems with the NCSA, the browser was subsequently renamed
Netscape Navigator in the same year, and the company took the
name Netscape Communications. Netscape Communications realized
that the Web needed to become more dynamic. Marc Andreessen, the
founder of the company believed that HTML needed a "glue
language" that was easy to use by Web designers and part-time
programmers to assemble components such as images and plugins,
where the code could be written directly in the Web page markup.

In 1995, Netscape Communications recruited Brendan Eich with the

goal of embedding the Scheme programming language into its
Netscape Navigator.[14] Before he could get started, Netscape
Communications collaborated with Sun Microsystems to include in
Netscape Navigator Sun's more static programming language Java,
in order to compete with Microsoft for user adoption of Web
technologies and platforms.[15] Netscape Communications then
decided that the scripting language they wanted to create would
complement Java and should have a similar syntax, which excluded
adopting other languages such as Perl, Python, TCL, or Scheme. To
defend the idea of JavaScript against competing proposals, the
company needed a prototype. Eich wrote one in 10 days, in May
1995.

Although it was developed under the name Mocha, the language was
officially called LiveScript when it first shipped in beta
releases of Netscape Navigator 2.0 in September 1995, but it was
renamed JavaScript[2] when it was deployed in the Netscape
Navigator 2.0 beta 3 in December.[16] The final choice of name
caused confusion, giving the impression that the language was a
spin-off of the Java programming language, and the choice has
been characterized[17] as a marketing ploy by Netscape to give
JavaScript the cachet of what was then the hot new Web
programming language.

There is a common misconception that JavaScript was influenced by

an earlier Web page scripting language developed by Nombas named
Cmm (not to be confused with the later C-- created in 1997).[18]
[19] Brendan Eich, however, had never heard of Cmm before he
created LiveScript.[20] Nombas did pitch their embedded Web page
scripting to Netscape, though Web page scripting was not a new
concept, as shown by the ViolaWWW Web browser.[21] Nombas later
switched to offering JavaScript instead of Cmm in their
ScriptEase product and was part of the TC39 group that
standardized ECMAScript.[22]

Server-side JavaScript
In December 1995, soon after releasing JavaScript for browsers,
Netscape introduced an implementation of the language for server-
side scripting with Netscape Enterprise Server.[23]

Since 1996, the IIS web-server has supported Microsoft's

implementation of server-side Javascript -- JScript—in ASP and
.NET pages.[24]
Since the mid-2000s, additional server-side JavaScript
implementations have been introduced, such as Node.js in 2009.
[25]

Adoption by Microsoft
Microsoft script technologies including VBScript and JScript were
released in 1996. JScript, a reverse-engineered implementation of
Netscape's JavaScript, was part of Internet Explorer 3. JScript
was also available for server-side scripting in Internet
Information Server. Internet Explorer 3 also included Microsoft's
first support for CSS and various extensions to HTML, but in each
case the implementation was noticeably different from that found
in Netscape Navigator at the time.[26][27] These differences made
it difficult for designers and programmers to make a single
website work well in both browsers, leading to the use of "best
viewed in Netscape" and "best viewed in Internet Explorer" logos
that characterized these early years of the browser wars.[28]
JavaScript began to acquire a reputation for being one of the
roadblocks to a cross-platform and standards-driven Web. Some
developers took on the difficult task of trying to make their
sites work in both major browsers, but many could not afford the
time.[26] With the release of Internet Explorer 4, Microsoft
introduced the concept of Dynamic HTML, but the differences in
language implementations and the different and proprietary
Document Object Models remained and were obstacles to widespread
take-up of JavaScript on the Web.[26]

Standardization
In November 1996, Netscape submitted JavaScript to ECMA
International to carve out a standard specification, which other
browser vendors could then implement based on the work done at
Netscape. This led to the official release of the language
specification ECMAScript published in the first edition of the
ECMA-262 standard in June 1997, with JavaScript being the most
well known of the implementations. ActionScript and JScript were
other well-known implementations of ECMAScript.

The release of ECMAScript 2 in June 1998 continued the standards

process cycle, conforming some modifications to the ISO/IEC 16262
international standard. ECMAScript 3 was released in December
1999 and is the modern-day baseline for JavaScript. The original
ECMAScript 4 work led by Waldemar Horwat (then at Netscape, now
at Google) started in 2000. Microsoft initially participated and
implemented some proposals in their JScript .NET language.

Over time it was clear that Microsoft had no intention of

cooperating or implementing proper JavaScript in Internet
Explorer, even though they had no competing proposal and they had
a partial (and diverged at this point) implementation on the .NET
server side. So by 2003, the original ECMAScript 4 work was
mothballed.
The next major event was in 2005, with two major happenings in
JavaScript's history. First, Brendan Eich and Mozilla rejoined
Ecma International as a not-for-profit member and work started on
ECMAScript for XML (E4X), the ECMA-357 standard, which came from
ex-Microsoft employees at BEA Systems (originally acquired as
Crossgain). This led to working jointly with Macromedia (later
acquired by Adobe Systems), who were implementing E4X in
ActionScript 3 (ActionScript 3 was a fork of original ECMAScript
4).

So, along with Macromedia, work restarted on ECMAScript 4 with

the goal of standardizing what was in ActionScript 3. To this
end, Adobe Systems released the ActionScript Virtual Machine 2,
code named Tamarin, as an open source project. But Tamarin and
ActionScript 3 were too different from web JavaScript to
converge, as was realized by the parties in 2007 and 2008.

Alas, there was still turmoil between the various players;

Douglas Crockford—then at Yahoo!—joined forces with Microsoft in
2007 to oppose ECMAScript 4, which led to the ECMAScript 3.1
effort. The development of ECMAScript 4 was never completed, but
that work influenced subsequent versions.[29]

While all of this was happening, the open source and developer
communities set to work to revolutionize what could be done with
JavaScript. This community effort was sparked in 2005 when Jesse
James Garrett released a white paper in which he coined the term
Ajax, and described a set of technologies, of which JavaScript
was the backbone, used to create web applications where data can
be loaded in the background, avoiding the need for full page
reloads and leading to more dynamic applications. This resulted
in a renaissance period of JavaScript usage spearheaded by open
source libraries and the communities that formed around them,
with libraries such as Prototype, jQuery, Dojo Toolkit, MooTools,
and others being released.

In July 2008, the disparate parties on either side came together

in Oslo. This led to the eventual agreement in early 2009 to
rename ECMAScript 3.1 to ECMAScript 5 and drive the language
forward using an agenda that is known as Harmony. ECMAScript 5
was finally released in December 2009.

In June 2011, ECMAScript 5.1 was released to fully align with the
third edition of the ISO/IEC 16262 international standard.
ECMAScript 2015 was released in June 2015. ECMAScript 2016 was
released in June 2016. The current version is ECMAScript 2017,
released in June 2017.[3]

Later developments
JavaScript has become one of the most popular programming
languages on the Web. However, many professional programmers
initially denigrated the language due to the perceived target
audience of Web authors and other such "amateurs".[30] The advent
of Ajax returned JavaScript to the spotlight and brought more
professional programming attention. The result was a
proliferation of comprehensive frameworks and libraries, improved
JavaScript programming practices, and increased usage of
JavaScript outside Web browsers, as seen by the proliferation of
Server-side JavaScript platforms.

In January 2009, the CommonJS project was founded with the goal
of specifying a common standard library mainly for JavaScript
development outside the browser.[31]

With the rise of single-page applications and JavaScript-heavy

sites, it is increasingly being used as a compile target for
source-to-source compilers from both dynamic languages and static
languages.

Trademark
"JavaScript" is a trademark of Oracle Corporation in the United
States.[32] It is used under license for technology invented and
implemented by Netscape Communications and current entities such
as the Mozilla Foundation.[33]

Features
The following features are common to all conforming ECMAScript
implementations, unless explicitly specified otherwise.

Universal support
All popular modern Web browsers support JavaScript with built-in
interpreters.

Imperative and structured

JavaScript supports much of the structured programming syntax
from C (e.g., if statements, while loops, switch statements, do
while loops, etc.). One partial exception is scoping: JavaScript
originally had only function scoping with var. ECMAScript 2015
added keywords let and const for block scoping, meaning
JavaScript now has both function and block scoping. Like C,
JavaScript makes a distinction between expressions and
statements. One syntactic difference from C is automatic
semicolon insertion, which allows the semicolons that would
normally terminate statements to be omitted.[34]

Dynamic
Typing
JavaScript is dynamically typed like most other scripting
languages. A type is associated with a value rather than an
expression. For example, a variable initially bound to a number
may be reassigned to a string.[35] JavaScript supports various
ways to test the type of objects, including duck typing.[36]
Run-time evaluation
JavaScript includes an eval function that can execute statements
provided as strings at run-time.
Prototype-based (object-oriented)
JavaScript is almost entirely object-based. In JavaScript, an
object is an associative array, augmented with a prototype (see
below); each string key provides the name for an object property,
and there are two syntactical ways to specify such a name: dot
notation (obj.x = 10) and bracket notation (obj['x'] = 10). A
property may be added, rebound, or deleted at run-time. Most
properties of an object (and any property that belongs to an
object's prototype inheritance chain) can be enumerated using a
for...in loop.

JavaScript has a small number of built-in objects, including

Function and Date.

Prototypes
JavaScript uses prototypes where many other object-oriented
languages use classes for inheritance.[37] It is possible to
simulate many class-based features with prototypes in JavaScript.
[38]
Functions as object constructors
Functions double as object constructors, along with their typical
role. Prefixing a function call with new will create an instance
of a prototype, inheriting properties and methods from the
constructor (including properties from the Object prototype).[39]
ECMAScript 5 offers the Object.create method, allowing explicit
creation of an instance without automatically inheriting from the
Object prototype (older environments can assign the prototype to
null).[40] The constructor's prototype property determines the
object used for the new object's internal prototype. New methods
can be added by modifying the prototype of the function used as a
constructor. JavaScript's built-in constructors, such as Array or
Object, also have prototypes that can be modified. While it is
possible to modify the Object prototype, it is generally
considered bad practice because most objects in JavaScript will
inherit methods and properties from the Object prototype, and
they may not expect the prototype to be modified.[41]
Functions as methods
Unlike many object-oriented languages, there is no distinction
between a function definition and a method definition. Rather,
the distinction occurs during function calling; when a function
is called as a method of an object, the function's local this
keyword is bound to that object for that invocation.
Functional
A function is first-class; a function is considered to be an
object. As such, a function may have properties and methods, such
as .call() and .bind().[42] A nested function is a function
defined within another function. It is created each time the
outer function is invoked. In addition, each nested function
forms a lexical closure: The lexical scope of the outer function
(including any constant, local variable, or argument value)
becomes part of the internal state of each inner function object,
even after execution of the outer function concludes.[43]
JavaScript also supports anonymous functions.

Delegative
JavaScript supports implicit and explicit delegation.

Functions as roles (Traits and Mixins)

JavaScript natively supports various function-based
implementations of Role[44] patterns like Traits[45][46] and
Mixins.[47] Such a function defines additional behavior by at
least one method bound to the this keyword within its function
body. A Role then has to be delegated explicitly via call or
apply to objects that need to feature additional behavior that is
not shared via the prototype chain.
Object composition and inheritance
Whereas explicit function-based delegation does cover composition
in JavaScript, implicit delegation already happens every time the
prototype chain is walked in order to, e.g., find a method that
might be related to but is not directly owned by an object. Once
the method is found it gets called within this object's context.
Thus inheritance in JavaScript is covered by a delegation
automatism that is bound to the prototype property of constructor
functions.
Miscellaneous
Run-time environment
JavaScript typically relies on a run-time environment (e.g., a
Web browser) to provide objects and methods by which scripts can
interact with the environment (e.g., a webpage DOM). It also
relies on the run-time environment to provide the ability to
include/import scripts (e.g., HTML <script> elements). This is
not a language feature per se, but it is common in most
JavaScript implementations. JavaScript processes messages from a
queue one at a time. JavaScript calls a function associated with
each new message, creating a call stack frame with the function's
arguments and local variables. The call stack shrinks and grows
based on the function's needs. When the call stack is empty upon
function completion, JavaScript proceeds to the next message in
the queue. This is called the event loop, described as "run to
completion" because each message is fully processed before the
next message is considered. However, the language's concurrency
model describes the event loop as non-blocking: program
input/output is performed using events and callback functions.
This means, for instance, that JavaScript can process a mouse
click while waiting for a database query to return information.
[48]
Variadic functions
An indefinite number of parameters can be passed to a function.
The function can access them through formal parameters and also
through the local arguments object. Variadic functions can also
be created by using the bind method.
Array and object literals
Like many scripting languages, arrays and objects (associative
arrays in other languages) can each be created with a succinct
shortcut syntax. In fact, these literals form the basis of the
JSON data format.
Regular expressions
JavaScript also supports regular expressions in a manner similar
to Perl, which provide a concise and powerful syntax for text
manipulation that is more sophisticated than the built-in string
functions.[49]
Vendor-specific extensions
JavaScript is officially managed by Mozilla Foundation, and new
language features are added periodically. However, only some
JavaScript engines support these new features:

property getter and setter functions (supported by WebKit, Gecko,

Opera,[50] ActionScript, and Rhino)[51]
conditional catch clauses
iterator protocol (adopted from Python)
shallow generators-coroutines (adopted from Python)
array comprehensions and generator expressions (adopted from
Python)
proper block scope via the let keyword
array and object destructuring (limited form of pattern matching)
concise function expressions (function(args) expr)
ECMAScript for XML (E4X), an extension that adds native XML
support to ECMAScript (unsupported in Firefox since version
21[52])
Syntax
Main article: JavaScript syntax
Simple examples
Variables in JavaScript can be defined using either the var,[53]
let[54] or const[55] keywords.

var x; // declares the variable x and assigns to it the special

value "undefined" (not to be confused with an undefined value)
var y = 2; // declares the variable y and assigns to it the value
2
var z = "Hello, World!"; // declares the variable z and assigns
to it a string containing "Hello, World!"
Note the comments in the example above, all of which were
preceded with two forward slashes.

There is no built-in I/O functionality in JavaScript; the run-

time environment provides that. The ECMAScript specification in
edition 5.1 mentions:[56]

indeed, there are no provisions in this specification for input

of external data or output of computed results.

However, most runtime environments have a console object[57] that

can be used to print output. Here is a minimalist Hello World
program in JavaScript:
console.log("Hello World!");
A simple recursive function:

function factorial(n) {
if (n === 0) {
return 1; // 0! = 1
}
return n * factorial(n - 1);
}

factorial(3); // returns 6
An anonymous function (or lambda):

function counter() {
var count = 0;
return function() {
return ++count;
};
}

var closure = counter();

closure(); // returns 1
closure(); // returns 2
closure(); // returns 3
This example shows that, in JavaScript, function closures capture
their non-local variables by reference.

In JavaScript, objects are created in the same way as functions,

this is known as a function object.

Object example:

function Ball(r) {
this.radius = r; //the radius variable is local to the ball
object
this.area = pi*r**2;
this.show = function(){ //objects can contain functions
drawCircle(r); //references a circle drawing function
}
}
myBall = new Ball(5); //creates a new instance of the ball object
with radius 5
myBall.show(); //this instance of the ball object has the show
function performed on it
Variadic function demonstration (arguments is a special
variable):[58]

function sum() {
var x = 0;
for (var i = 0; i < arguments.length; ++i) {
x += arguments[i];
 }
return x;
}
sum(1, 2); // returns 3
sum(1, 2, 3); // returns 6
Immediately-invoked function expressions are often used to create
modules, as before ECMAScript 2015 there was no built-in
construct in the language. Modules allow gathering properties and
methods in a namespace and making some of them private:

var counter = (function () {

var i = 0; // private property

return { // public methods

get: function () {
alert(i);
},
set: function (value) {
i = value;
},
increment: function () {
alert(++i);
}
};
})(); // module

counter.get(); // shows 0
counter.set(6);
counter.increment(); // shows 7
counter.increment(); // shows 8
More advanced example
This sample code displays various JavaScript features.

/* Finds the lowest common multiple (LCM) of two numbers */

function LCMCalculator(x, y) { // constructor function
var checkInt = function(x) { // inner function
if (x % 1 !== 0) {
throw new TypeError(x + "is not an integer"); // var a =
mouseX
};

return x
}
this.a = checkInt(x)
// semicolons ^^^^ are optional, a newline is enough
this.b = checkInt(y);

}
// The prototype of object instances created by a constructor is
// that constructor's "prototype" property.
LCMCalculator.prototype = { // object literal
constructor: LCMCalculator, // when reassigning a prototype,
set the constructor property appropriately
gcd: function() { // method that calculates the greatest common
divisor
// Euclidean algorithm:
var a = Math.abs(this.a),
b = Math.abs(this.b),
t;
if (a < b) {
// swap variables
// t = b; b = a; a = t;
[a, b] = [b, a]; // swap using destructuring assignment
(ES6)
}
while (b !== 0) {
t = b;
b = a % b;
a = t;
}
// Only need to calculate GCD once, so "redefine" this
method.
// (Actually not redefinition—it's defined on the instance
itself,
// so that this.gcd refers to this "redefinition" instead of
LCMCalculator.prototype.gcd.
// Note that this leads to a wrong result if the
LCMCalculator object members "a" and/or "b" are altered
afterwards.)
// Also, 'gcd' === "gcd", this['gcd'] === this.gcd
this['gcd'] = function() {
return a;
};
return a;
},
// Object property names can be specified by strings delimited
by double (") or single (') quotes.
lcm: function() {
// Variable names don't collide with object properties, e.g.,
|lcm| is not |this.lcm|.
// not using |this.a*this.b| to avoid FP precision issues
var lcm = this.a / this.gcd() * this.b;
// Only need to calculate lcm once, so "redefine" this
method.
this.lcm = function() {
return lcm;
};
return lcm;
},
toString: function() {
return "LCMCalculator: a = " + this.a + ", b = " + this.b;
}
};
// Define generic output function; this implementation only works
for Web browsers
function output(x) {
document.body.appendChild(document.createTextNode(x));
document.body.appendChild(document.createElement('br'));
}

// Note: Array's map() and forEach() are defined in JavaScript

1.6.
// They are used here to demonstrate JavaScript's inherent
functional nature.
[
[25, 55],
[21, 56],
[22, 58],
[28, 56]
].map(function(pair) { // array literal + mapping function
return new LCMCalculator(pair[0], pair[1]);
}).sort((a, b) => a.lcm() - b.lcm()) // sort with this
comparative function; => is a shorthand form of a function,
called "arrow function"
.forEach(printResult);

function printResult(obj) {
output(obj + ", gcd = " + obj.gcd() + ", lcm = " + obj.lcm());
}
The following output should be displayed in the browser window.

LCMCalculator: a = 28, b = 56, gcd = 28, lcm = 56

LCMCalculator: a = 21, b = 56, gcd = 7, lcm = 168
LCMCalculator: a = 25, b = 55, gcd = 5, lcm = 275
LCMCalculator: a = 22, b = 58, gcd = 2, lcm = 638
Use in Web pages
See also: Dynamic HTML and Ajax (programming)
As of May 2017 94.5% of 10 million most popular web pages used
JavaScript.[10] The most common use of JavaScript is to add
client-side behavior to HTML pages, also known as Dynamic HTML
(DHTML). Scripts are embedded in or included from HTML pages and
interact with the Document Object Model (DOM) of the page. Some
simple examples of this usage are:

Loading new page content or submitting data to the server via

Ajax without reloading the page (for example, a social network
might allow the user to post status updates without leaving the
page).
Animation of page elements, fading them in and out, resizing
them, moving them, etc.
Interactive content, for example games, and playing audio and
video.
Validating input values of a Web form to make sure that they are
acceptable before being submitted to the server.
Transmitting information about the user's reading habits and
browsing activities to various websites. Web pages frequently do
this for Web analytics, ad tracking, personalization or other
purposes.
JavaScript code can run locally in a user's browser (rather than
on a remote server), increasing the application's overall
responsiveness to user actions. JavaScript code can also detect
user actions that HTML alone cannot, such as individual
keystrokes. Applications such as Gmail take advantage of this:
much of the user-interface logic is written in JavaScript, and
JavaScript dispatches requests for information (such as the
content of an e-mail message) to the server. The wider trend of
Ajax programming similarly exploits this strength.

A JavaScript engine (also known as JavaScript interpreter or

JavaScript implementation) is an interpreter that interprets
JavaScript source code and executes the script accordingly. The
first JavaScript engine was created by Brendan Eich at Netscape,
for the Netscape Navigator Web browser. The engine, code-named
SpiderMonkey, is implemented in C. It has since been updated (in
JavaScript 1.5) to conform to ECMAScript 3. The Rhino engine,
created primarily by Norris Boyd (formerly at Netscape, now at
Google) is a JavaScript implementation in Java. Rhino, like
SpiderMonkey, is ECMAScript 3 compliant.

A Web browser is the most common host environment for JavaScript.

However, a Web browsers doesn't have to execute JavaScript code.
(For example, text-based browsers have no JavaScript engines; and
users of other browsers may disable scripts through a preference
or extension.)

A Web browser typically creates "host objects" to represent the

DOM in JavaScript. The Web server is another common host
environment. A JavaScript Web server would typically expose host
objects representing HTTP request and response objects, which a
JavaScript program could then interrogate and manipulate to
dynamically generate Web pages.

JavaScript is the only language that the most popular browsers

share support for and has inadvertently become a target language
for frameworks in other languages.[59] The increasing speed of
JavaScript engines has made the language a feasible compilation
target, despite the performance limitations inherent to its
dynamic nature.

Example script
Below is a minimal example of a standards-conforming Web page
containing JavaScript (using HTML 5 syntax) and the DOM:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Example</title>
 </head>
<body>
<button id="hellobutton">Hello</button>
<script>
document.getElementById('hellobutton').onclick =
function() {
alert('Hello world!'); // Show a
dialog
var myTextNode = document.createTextNode('Some new
words.');
document.body.appendChild(myTextNode); // Append
"Some new words" to the page
};
</script>
</body>
</html>
Compatibility considerations
Main article: Web interoperability
Because JavaScript runs in widely varying environments, an
important part of testing and debugging is to test and verify
that the JavaScript works across multiple browsers.

The DOM interfaces are officially defined by the W3C in a

standardization effort separate from JavaScript. The
implementation of these DOM interfaces differ between web
browsers.

JavaScript authors can deal with these differences by writing

standards-compliant code that can be executed correctly by most
browsers. Failing that, they can write code that behaves
differently in the absence of certain browser features.[60]
Authors may also find it practical to detect what browser is
running, as two browsers may implement the same feature with
differing behavior.[61][62] Libraries and toolkits that take
browser differences into account are also useful to programmers.

Furthermore, scripts may not work for some users. For example, a
user may:

use an old or rare browser with incomplete or unusual DOM

support;
use a PDA or mobile phone browser that cannot execute JavaScript;
have JavaScript execution disabled as a security precaution;
use a speech browser due to, for example, a visual disability.
To support these users, Web authors can try to create pages that
degrade gracefully on user agents (browsers) that do not support
the page's JavaScript. In particular, the page should remain
usable albeit without the extra features that the JavaScript
would have added. Some sites use the HTML <noscript> tag, which
contains alt content if JS is disabled. An alternative approach
that many[quantify] find preferable is to first author content
using basic technologies that work in all browsers, then enhance
the content for users that have JavaScript enabled. [63] This is
known as progressive enhancement.

Security
See also: Browser security
JavaScript and the DOM provide the potential for malicious
authors to deliver scripts to run on a client computer via the
Web. Browser authors minimize this risk using two restrictions.
First, scripts run in a sandbox in which they can only perform
Web-related actions, not general-purpose programming tasks like
creating files. Second, scripts are constrained by the same-
origin policy: scripts from one Web site do not have access to
information such as usernames, passwords, or cookies sent to
another site. Most JavaScript-related security bugs are breaches
of either the same origin policy or the sandbox.

There are subsets of general JavaScript—ADsafe, Secure ECMAScript

(SES)—that provide greater levels of security, especially on code
created by third parties (such as advertisements).[64][65] Caja
is another project for safe embedding and isolation of third-
party JavaScript and HTML.

Content Security Policy is the main intended method of ensuring

that only trusted code is executed on a Web page.

See also: Content Security Policy

Cross-site vulnerabilities
Main articles: Cross-site scripting and Cross-site request
forgery
A common JavaScript-related security problem is cross-site
scripting (XSS), a violation of the same-origin policy. XSS
vulnerabilities occur when an attacker is able to cause a target
Web site, such as an online banking website, to include a
malicious script in the webpage presented to a victim. The script
in this example can then access the banking application with the
privileges of the victim, potentially disclosing secret
information or transferring money without the victim's
authorization. A solution to XSS vulnerabilities is to use HTML
escaping whenever displaying untrusted data.

Some browsers include partial protection against reflected XSS

attacks, in which the attacker provides a URL including malicious
script. However, even users of those browsers are vulnerable to
other XSS attacks, such as those where the malicious code is
stored in a database. Only correct design of Web applications on
the server side can fully prevent XSS.

XSS vulnerabilities can also occur because of implementation

mistakes by browser authors.[66]

Another cross-site vulnerability is cross-site request forgery

(CSRF). In CSRF, code on an attacker's site tricks the victim's
browser into taking actions the user didn't intend at a target
site (like transferring money at a bank). When target sites rely
solely on cookies for request authentication, requests
originating from code on the attacker's site can carry the same
valid login credentials of the initiating user. In general, the
solution to CSRF is to require an authentication value in a
hidden form field, and not only in the cookies, to authenticate
any request that might have lasting effects. Checking the HTTP
Referrer header can also help.

"JavaScript hijacking" is a type of CSRF attack in which a

<script> tag on an attacker's site exploits a page on the
victim's site that returns private information such as JSON or
JavaScript. Possible solutions include:

requiring an authentication token in the POST and GET parameters

for any response that returns private information.
Misplaced trust in the client
Developers of client-server applications must recognize that
untrusted clients may be under the control of attackers. The
application author cannot assume that their JavaScript code will
run as intended (or at all) because any secret embedded in the
code could be extracted by a determined adversary. Some
implications are:

Web site authors cannot perfectly conceal how their JavaScript

operates because the raw source code must be sent to the client.
The code can be obfuscated, but obfuscation can be reverse-
engineered.
JavaScript form validation only provides convenience for users,
not security. If a site verifies that the user agreed to its
terms of service, or filters invalid characters out of fields
that should only contain numbers, it must do so on the server,
not only the client.
Scripts can be selectively disabled, so JavaScript can't be
relied on to prevent operations such as right-clicking on an
image to save it.[67]
It is extremely bad practice to embed sensitive information such
as passwords in JavaScript because it can be extracted by an
attacker.
Misplaced trust in developers
Package management systems such as npm and Bower are popular with
JavaScript developers. Such systems allow a developer to easily
manage their program's dependencies upon other developer's
program libraries. Developers trust that the maintainers of the
libraries will keep them secure and up to date, but that is not
always the case. A vulnerability has emerged because of this
blind trust. Relied-upon libraries can have new releases that
cause bugs or vulnerabilities to appear in all programs that rely
upon the libraries. Inversely, a library can go unpatched with
known vulnerabilities out in the wild. In a study done looking
over a sample of 133k websites, researchers found 37% of the
websites included a library with at-least one known
vulnerability.[68] "The median lag between the oldest library
version used on each website and the newest available version of
that library is 1,177 days in ALEXA, and development of some
libraries still in active use ceased years ago."[68] Another
possibility is that the maintainer of a library may remove the
library entirely. This occurred in March 2016 when Azer Koçulu
removed his repository from npm. This caused all tens of
thousands of programs and websites depending upon his libraries
to break.[69][70]

Browser and plugin coding errors

JavaScript provides an interface to a wide range of browser
capabilities, some of which may have flaws such as buffer
overflows. These flaws can allow attackers to write scripts that
would run any code they wish on the user's system. This code is
not by any means limited to another JavaScript application. For
example, a buffer overrun exploit can allow an attacker to gain
access to the operating system's API with superuser privileges.

These flaws have affected major browsers including Firefox,[71]

Internet Explorer,[72] and Safari.[73]

Plugins, such as video players, Adobe Flash, and the wide range
of ActiveX controls enabled by default in Microsoft Internet
Explorer, may also have flaws exploitable via JavaScript (such
flaws have been exploited in the past).[74][75]

In Windows Vista, Microsoft has attempted to contain the risks of

bugs such as buffer overflows by running the Internet Explorer
process with limited privileges.[76] Google Chrome similarly
confines its page renderers to their own "sandbox".

Sandbox implementation errors

Web browsers are capable of running JavaScript outside the
sandbox, with the privileges necessary to, for example, create or
delete files. Of course, such privileges aren't meant to be
granted to code from the Web.

Incorrectly granting privileges to JavaScript from the Web has

played a role in vulnerabilities in both Internet Explorer[77]
and Firefox.[78] In Windows XP Service Pack 2, Microsoft demoted
JScript's privileges in Internet Explorer.[79]

Microsoft Windows allows JavaScript source files on a computer's

hard drive to be launched as general-purpose, non-sandboxed
programs (see: Windows Script Host). This makes JavaScript (like
VBScript) a theoretically viable vector for a Trojan horse,
although JavaScript Trojan horses are uncommon in practice.[80]
[not in citation given]

Hardware vulnerabilities
In 2015, a JavaScript-based proof-of-concept implementation of a
rowhammer attack was described in a paper by security
researchers.[81][82][83][84]

In 2017, a JavaScript-based attack via browser was demonstrated

that could bypass ASLR. It's called "ASLR⊕Cache" or AnC.[85][86]

Uses outside Web pages

In addition to Web browsers and servers, JavaScript interpreters
are embedded in a number of tools. Each of these applications
provides its own object model that provides access to the host
environment. The core JavaScript language remains mostly the same
in each application.

Embedded scripting language

Google's Chrome extensions, Opera's extensions, Apple's Safari 5
extensions, Apple's Dashboard Widgets, Microsoft's Gadgets,
Yahoo! Widgets, Google Desktop Gadgets, and Serence Klipfolio are
implemented using JavaScript.
The MongoDB database accepts queries written in JavaScript.
MongoDB and NodeJS are the core components of MEAN: a solution
stack for creating Web applications using just JavaScript.
The Clusterpoint database accept queries written in JS/SQL, which
is a combination of SQL and JavaScript. Clusterpoint has built-in
computing engine that allows execution of JavaScript code right
inside the distributed database.
Adobe's Acrobat and Adobe Reader support JavaScript in PDF files.
[87]
Tools in the Adobe Creative Suite, including Photoshop,
Illustrator, After Effects, Dreamweaver, and InDesign, allow
scripting through JavaScript.
LibreOffice, an office application suite, allows JavaScript to be
used as a scripting language.
The visual programming language Max, released by Cycling '74,
offers a JavaScript model of its environment for use by
developers. It allows users to reduce visual clutter by using an
object for a task rather than many.
Apple's Logic Pro X digital audio workstation (DAW) software can
create custom MIDI effects plugins using JavaScript.[88]
The Unity game engine supported a modified version of JavaScript
for scripting via Mono until 2017.[89]
DX Studio (3D engine) uses the SpiderMonkey implementation of
JavaScript for game and simulation logic.[90]
Maxwell Render (rendering software) provides an ECMA standard
based scripting engine for tasks automation.[91]
Google Apps Script in Google Spreadsheets and Google Sites allows
users to create custom formulas, automate repetitive tasks and
also interact with other Google products such as Gmail.[92]
Many IRC clients, like ChatZilla or XChat, use JavaScript for
their scripting abilities.[93][94]
RPG Maker MV uses JavaScript as its scripting language.[95]
The text editor UltraEdit uses JavaScript 1.7 as internal
scripting language, introduced with version 13 in 2007.
Scripting engine
Microsoft's Active Scripting technology supports JScript as a
scripting language.[96]
Java introduced the javax.script package in version 6 that
includes a JavaScript implementation based on Mozilla Rhino.
Thus, Java applications can host scripts that access the
application's variables and objects, much like Web browsers host
scripts that access a webpage's Document Object Model (DOM).[97]
[98]
The Qt C++ toolkit includes a QtScript module to interpret
JavaScript, analogous to Java's javax.script package.[99]
OS X Yosemite introduced JavaScript for Automation (JXA), which
is built upon JavaScriptCore and the Open Scripting Architecture.
It features an Objective-C bridge that enables entire Cocoa
applications to be programmed in JavaScript.
Late Night Software's JavaScript OSA (also known as JavaScript
for OSA, or JSOSA) is a freeware alternative to AppleScript for
OS X. It is based on the Mozilla JavaScript 1.5 implementation,
with the addition of a MacOS object for interaction with the
operating system and third-party applications.
Application platform
See also: List of server-side JavaScript implementations
ActionScript, the programming language used in Adobe Flash, is
another implementation of the ECMAScript standard.
Adobe AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) is a JavaScript runtime that
allows developers to create desktop applications.
Electron is an open-source framework developed by GitHub.
CA Technologies AutoShell cross-application scripting environment
is built on the SpiderMonkey JavaScript engine. It contains
preprocessor-like extensions for command definition, as well as
custom classes for various system-related tasks like file I/O,
operation system command invocation and redirection, and COM
scripting.
Apache Cordova is a mobile application development framework
Cocos2d is an open source software framework. It can be used to
build games, apps and other cross platform GUI based interactive
programs
Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF) is an open source framework for
embedding a web browser engine based on the Chromium core
RhoMobile Suite is a set of development tools for creating data-
centric, cross-platform, native mobile consumer and enterprise
applications.
NW.js call all Node.js modules directly from DOM and enable a new
way of writing applications with all Web technologies.[100]
GNOME Shell, the shell for the GNOME 3 desktop environment,[101]
made JavaScript its default programming language in 2013.[102]
The Mozilla application framework (XPFE) platform, which
underlies Firefox, Thunderbird, and some other Web browsers, uses
JavaScript to implement the graphical user interface (GUI) of its
various products.
Qt Quick's markup language (available since Qt 4.7) uses
JavaScript for its application logic. Its declarative syntax is
also similar to JavaScript.
Ubuntu Touch provides a JavaScript API for its unified usability
interface.
Open webOS is the next generation of web-centric platforms built
to run on a wide range of form factors.[103]
enyo JS is a framework to develop apps for all major platforms,
from phones and tablets to PCs and TVs[104]
WinJS provides a special Windows Library for JavaScript
functionality in Windows 8 that enables the development of Modern
style (formerly Metro style) applications in HTML5 and
JavaScript.
NativeScript is an open-source framework to develop apps on the
Apple iOS and Android platforms.
Weex is a framework for building Mobile cross-platform UI,
created by China Tech giant Alibaba[105]
XULRunner is packaged version of the Mozilla platform to enable
standalone desktop application development
Development tools
Within JavaScript, access to a debugger becomes invaluable when
developing large, non-trivial programs. Because there can be
implementation differences between the various browsers
(particularly within the DOM), it is useful to have access to a
debugger for each of the browsers that a Web application targets.
[106]

Script debuggers are integrated within Internet Explorer,

Firefox, Safari, Google Chrome, Opera and Node.js.[107][108][109]

In addition to the native Internet Explorer Developer Tools,

three debuggers are available for Internet Explorer: Microsoft
Visual Studio is the richest of the three, closely followed by
Microsoft Script Editor (a component of Microsoft Office),[110]
and finally the free Microsoft Script Debugger that is far more
basic than the other two. The free Microsoft Visual Web Developer
Express provides a limited version of the JavaScript debugging
functionality in Microsoft Visual Studio. Internet Explorer has
included developer tools since version 8.

In comparison to Internet Explorer, Firefox has a more

comprehensive set of developer tools, which include a debugger as
well. Old versions of Firefox without these tools used a Firefox
addon called Firebug, or the older Venkman debugger. Also,
WebKit's Web Inspector includes a JavaScript debugger,[111] which
is used in Safari. A modified version called Blink DevTools is
used in Google Chrome. Node.js has Node Inspector, an interactive
debugger that integrates with the Blink DevTools, available in
Google Chrome. Opera includes a set of tools called Dragonfly.
[112]

In addition to the native computer software, there are online

JavaScript IDEs, debugging aids that are themselves written in
JavaScript and built to run on the Web. An example is the program
JSLint, developed by Douglas Crockford who has written
extensively on the language. JSLint scans JavaScript code for
conformance to a set of standards and guidelines. Many libraries
for JavaScript, such as three.js, provide links to demonstration
code that can be edited by users. They are also used as a
pedagogical tool by institutions such as Khan Academy[113] to
allow students to experience writing code in an environment where
they can see the output of their programs, without needing any
setup beyond a Web browser.

Benchmark tools for developers

JavaScript's increased usage in web development warrants further
considerations about performance. Frontend code has inherited
many responsibilities previously handled by the backend. Mobile
devices in particular may encounter problems rendering poorly
optimized frontend code.

A library for doing benchmarks is benchmark.js.[114] A

benchmarking library that supports high-resolution timers and
returns statistically significant results[citation needed].

Another tool is jsben.ch.[115] An online JavaScript benchmarking

tool, where code snippets can be tested against each other.

Version history
See also: ECMAScript § Versions
JavaScript was initially developed in 1996 for use in the
Netscape Navigator Web browser. In the same year Microsoft
released an implementation for Internet Explorer. This
implementation was called JScript due to trademark issues. In
1997, the first standardized version of the language was released
under the name ECMAScript in the first edition of the ECMA-262
standard.

The explicit versioning and opt-in of language features was

Mozilla-specific and has been removed in later Firefox versions
(at least by Firefox 59). Firefox 4 was the last version which
referred to an explicit JavaScript version (1.8.5). With new
editions of the ECMA-262 standard, JavaScript language features
are now often mentioned with their initial definition in the
ECMA-262 editions.

The following table of explicitly versioned JavaScript versions

is based on information from multiple sources.[116][117][118]

Version Release date Equivalent to Netscape

Navigator Mozilla
Firefox Internet
Explorer Opera Safari Google
Chrome
1.0 March 1996 2.0 3.0
1.1 August 1996 3.0
1.2 June 1997 4.0-4.05 3
1.3 October 1998 ECMA-262 1st + 2nd edition 4.06-4.7x
4.0 5[119]
1.4 Netscape
Server 6
1.5 November 2000 ECMA-262 3rd edition 6.0 1.0 5.5
(JScript 5.5),
6 (JScript 5.6),
7 (JScript 5.7),
8 (JScript 5.8) 7.0 3.0-5 1.0-10.0.666
1.6 November 2005 1.5 + array extras + array and string
generics + E4X 1.5
1.7 October 2006 1.6 + Pythonic generators + iterators + let
2.0 28.0.1500.95
1.8 June 2008 1.7 + generator expressions + expression closures
3.0 11.50
1.8.1 1.8 + native JSON support + minor updates 3.5

1.8.2 June 22, 2009 1.8.1 + minor updates 3.6

1.8.5 July 27, 2010 1.8.2 + new features for ECMA-262 5th
edition compliance (last explicit versioning of JavaScript)
4.0
Related languages and technologies
JSON, or JavaScript Object Notation, is a general-purpose data
interchange format that is defined as a subset of JavaScript's
object literal syntax. Like much of JavaScript (regexps and
anonymous functions as 1st class elements, closures, flexible
classes, 'use strict'), JSON, except for replacing Perl's key-
value operator '=>' by an RFC 822[120] inspired ':', is
syntactically pure Perl[citation needed].

jQuery is a popular JavaScript library designed to simplify DOM-

oriented client-side HTML scripting along with offering cross-
browser compatibility because various browsers respond
differently to certain vanilla JavaScript code.

Underscore.js is a utility JavaScript library for data

manipulation that is used in both client-side and server-side
network applications.

Angular and AngularJS are web application frameworks to use for

developing single-page applications and also cross-platform
mobile apps.

React (JavaScript library) is an open source JavaScript library

providing views that are rendered using components specified as
custom HTML tags.

Vue (JavaScript framework) is an open source JavaScript framework

that features an incrementally adoptable architecture focusing on
declarative rendering and component composition.

Mozilla browsers currently support LiveConnect, a feature that

allows JavaScript and Java to intercommunicate on the Web.
However, Mozilla-specific support for LiveConnect was scheduled
to be phased out in the future in favor of passing on the
LiveConnect handling via NPAPI to the Java 1.6+ plug-in (not yet
supported on the Mac as of March 2010).[121] Most browser
inspection tools, such as Firebug in Firefox, include JavaScript
interpreters that can act on the visible page's DOM.

asm.js is a subset of JavaScript that can be run in any

JavaScript engine or run faster in an ahead-of-time (AOT)
compiling engine.[122]

JSFuck is an esoteric programming language. Programs are written

using only six different characters, but are still valid
JavaScript code.

p5.js[123] is an object oriented JavaScript library designed for

artists and designers. It is based on the ideas of the Processing
project but is for the web.

jsben.ch[115] is an online JavaScript benchmarking tool, where

different code snippets can be tested against each other.

CRISP: A Strategy guiding Cloud Application Development for

Beginners[124] is a strategy proposed by Ayush Sahu to develop
optimized and secure JavaScript application to be used in
mobiles, PC's and other devices. CRISP (Conversion, Reformat
code, Isolate module, Sandbox, Partition) strategy has been
proposed for refined conversion of native application to
JavaScript for cloud application development. JavaScript is
chosen as medium for writing application because it is mostly
used language among developers and provides rich API (Application
Programming Interface) for writing applications.[125]

Use as an intermediate language

As JavaScript is the most widely supported client-side language
that can run within a Web browser, it has become an intermediate
language for other languages to target. This has included both
newly created languages and ports of existing languages. Some of
these include:

ClojureScript,[126] a dialect of Clojure that targets JavaScript.

Its compiler is designed to emit JavaScript code that is
compatible with the advanced compilation mode of the Google
Closure optimizing compiler.
CoffeeScript, an alternate syntax for JavaScript intended to be
more concise and readable. It adds features like array
comprehensions (also available in JavaScript since version 1.7)
[127] and pattern matching. Like Objective-J, it compiles to
JavaScript. Ruby and Python have been cited as influential on
CoffeeScript syntax.
Dart, an all-purpose, open source language that compiles to
JavaScript.
Elm, a pure functional language for web apps. Unlike handwritten
JavaScript, Elm-generated JavaScript has zero runtime exceptions,
a time-traveling debugger, and enforced semantic versioning.
Emscripten, a LLVM-backend for porting native libraries to
JavaScript, known as asm.js[128]
Fantom, a programming language that runs on JVM, .NET and
JavaScript.
Free Pascal,[129] a compiler for Pascal that targets JavaScript.
Google Web Toolkit, a toolkit that translates a subset of Java to
JavaScript.
Haxe, an open-source high-level multiplatform programming
language and compiler that can produce applications and source
code for many different platforms including JavaScript.
OberonScript, a full implementation of the Oberon programming
language that compiles to high-level JavaScript.[130]
Objective-J, a superset of JavaScript that compiles to standard
JavaScript. It adds traditional inheritance and
Smalltalk/Objective-C style dynamic dispatch and optional pseudo-
static typing to JavaScript.
Processing.js, a JavaScript port of the Processing programming
language designed to write visualizations, images, and
interactive content. It allows Web browsers to display
animations, visual applications, games and other graphical rich
content without the need for a Java applet or Flash plugin.
Pyjs, a port of Google Web Toolkit to Python that translates a
subset of Python to JavaScript.
Scala, an object-oriented and functional programming language,
has a Scala-to-JavaScript compiler.[131]
SqueakJS,[132] a virtual machine and DOM environment for the
open-source Squeak implementation of the Smalltalk programming
language.
TypeScript, a free and open-source programming language developed
by Microsoft. It is a superset of JavaScript, and essentially
adds support for optional type annotations and some other
language extensions such as classes, interfaces and modules. A
TS-script compiles into plain JavaScript and can be executed in
any JS host supporting ECMAScript 3 or higher. The compiler is
itself written in TypeScript.
Whalesong,[133] a Racket-to-JavaScript compiler.
As JavaScript has unusual limitations – such as no explicit
integer type, only double-precision binary floating point –
languages that compile to JavaScript and do not take care to use
the integer-converting shift and bitwise logical operators may
have slightly different behavior than in other environments.

JavaScript and Java

A common[citation needed] misconception is that JavaScript is
similar or closely related to Java. It is true that both have a
C-like syntax (the C language being their most immediate common
ancestor language). They also are both typically sandboxed (when
used inside a browser), and JavaScript was designed with Java's
syntax and standard library in mind. In particular, all Java
keywords were reserved in original JavaScript, JavaScript's
standard library follows Java's naming conventions, and
JavaScript's Math and Date objects are based on classes from Java
1.0,[134] but the similarities end there.

Java and JavaScript both first appeared in 1995, but Java was
developed by James Gosling of Sun Microsystems, and JavaScript by
Brendan Eich of Netscape Communications.

The differences between the two languages are more prominent than
their similarities. Java has static typing, while JavaScript's
typing is dynamic. Java is loaded from compiled bytecode, while
JavaScript is loaded as human-readable source code. Java's
objects are class-based, while JavaScript's are prototype-based.
Finally, Java did not support functional programming until Java
8, while JavaScript has done so from the beginning, being
influenced by Scheme.

WebAssembly
Starting in 2017, web browsers began supporting WebAssembly, a
technology standardized by the W3C. The WebAssembly standard
specifies a binary format, which can be produced by a compiler
toolchain such as LLVM, to execute in the browser at near native
speed. WebAssembly allows programming languages such as C, C++,
C# and Java to be used as well as JavaScript to author client-
side code for the World Wide Web.[135]

See also
icon Computer programming portal
WebAssembly
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Further reading
Bhangal, Sham; Jankowski, Tomasz (2003). Foundation Web Design:
Essential HTML, JavaScript, CSS, PhotoShop, Fireworks, and Flash.
APress L. P. ISBN 1-59059-152-6.
Burns, Joe; Growney, Andree S. (2001). JavaScript Goodies.
Pearson Education. ISBN 0-7897-2612-2.
Duffy, Scott (2003). How to do Everything with JavaScript.
Osborne. ISBN 0-07-222887-3.
Flanagan, David (2006). JavaScript: The Definitive Guide (5th
ed.). O'Reilly & Associates. ISBN 0-596-10199-6.
Flanagan, David (2011). JavaScript: The Definitive Guide (6th
ed.). O'Reilly & Associates. ISBN 978-0-596-80552-4.
Goodman, Danny; Eich, Brendan (2001). JavaScript Bible. John
Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-7645-3342-8.
Goodman, Danny; Markel, Scott (2003). JavaScript and DHTML
Cookbook. O'Reilly & Associates. ISBN 0-596-00467-2.
Harris, Andy (2001). JavaScript Programming for the Absolute
Beginner. Premier Press. ISBN 0-7615-3410-5.
Haverbeke, Marijn (2011). Eloquent JavaScript. No Starch Press.
ISBN 978-1-59327-282-1.
Heinle, Nick; Koman, Richard (1997). Designing with JavaScript.
O'Reilly & Associates. ISBN 1-56592-300-6.
Husted, Robert; Kuslich, JJ (1999). Server-Side JavaScript:
Developing Integrated Web Applications (1st ed.). Addison-Wesley.
ISBN 0-201-43329-X.
McDuffie, Tina Spain (2003). JavaScript Concepts & Techniques:
Programming Interactive Web Sites. Franklin, Beedle & Associates.
ISBN 1-887902-69-4.
McFarlane, Nigel (2003). Rapid Application Development with
Mozilla. Prentice Hall Professional Technical References. ISBN 0-
13-142343-6.
Powell, Thomas A.; Schneider, Fritz (2001). JavaScript: The
Complete Reference. McGraw-Hill Companies. ISBN 0-07-219127-9.
Shelly, Gary B.; Cashman, Thomas J.; Dorin, William J.; Quasney,
Jeffrey J. (2000). JavaScript: Complete Concepts and Techniques.
Cambridge: Course Technology. ISBN 0-7895-6233-2.
Vander Veer, Emily A. (2004). JavaScript For Dummies (4th ed.).
Wiley Pub. ISBN 0-7645-7659-3.
Watt, Andrew H.; Watt, Jonathan A.; Simon, Jinjer L. (2002).
Teach Yourself JavaScript in 21 Days. Pearson Education. ISBN 0-
672-32297-8.
Zakas, Nicholas C. (2012). Professional JavaScript for Web
Developers (3rd ed.). Wrox. ISBN 978-1-118-02669-4.