Ask HN: Why did JavaScript win the browser?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8247149

5 23 12 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I'm trying to understand why Javascript won the browser.

There were tens of other languages one could have added in a browser, and yet this particular one, which wasn't even an established language but a new one, ended up being implemented in browsers.

How did that happen? If you were implementing Netscape or IE back then, what was going through your mind when you sat down implementing version one?

timetraveller• 12 years ago

Firstly, JavaScript was specifically created (tailored) for browsers.

Secondly, despite all the negative rants and how awful it is, JavaScript is very flexible and forgiving which is a good thing for web pages. Imagine if you get a parser error message preventing you from viewing every page that has a little error/bug/incompatible code with your JS version, etc.

wtbob2• 12 years ago

I think that if one did get such messages then it'd be better, since folks would have an incentive to fix their pages, of not rely on JavaScript (which would be even better … I'm tired of blood which won't display text without me having to grant them acres to run coffee on my system.

davidddavidson• 12 years ago

"I'm tired of blood which won't display text without me having to grant them acres to run coffee on my system."

What? Many autocorrect fails right here...

TheLem• 12 years ago

I think the best answer to your question is this video :

https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/talks/the-birth-and-death...

Title : THE BIRTH & DEATH OF JAVASCRIPT By : Gary Bernhardt From : PyCon 2014

malisper• 12 years ago

According to Wikipedia[0], Brendan Eich was originally supposed to put Scheme in the Netscape web browser. Instead he decided to create Javascript and used that instead.

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brendan_Eich#Netscape_and_JavaS...

uhsnamih• 12 years ago

What prevents adding other languages to the web browser even now?

icebraining• 12 years ago

Getting people to agree on which should be added. Adding new languages is only useful if they're widely supported by browsers.

Google is trying with Dart, they already have a fork of Chromium with a VM for it[1], but it still needs to be compiled to JS to support other browsers, and to many developers that loses its appeal.

[1] https://www.dartlang.org/tools/dartium/

yellow_and_gray2• 12 years ago

Thanks for this link. It points to http://www.computer.org/csdl/mags/co/2012/02/mco2012020007.p...

"When Netscape hired Brendan Eich in April 1995, he was told that he had 10 days to create and produce a working prototype of a programming language that would run in Netscape’s browser. Back then, the pace of Web innovation was furious, with Microsoft suddenly making the Internet the focus"

and

"[it] needed to be a silly little brother language."

It seems it was important to implement the language quickly rather than try and make it too good.

JaviScript• 12 years ago

JavaScript was the first programing language that runs in a browser. Historically this was the main reason, JS was developed for the most used browser in 1995: Netscape. Also this implementation become an standard: ECMAScript. Be the first, the most used and became a well-defined standard are requisites to success.

Microsoft tried to do their own language for browsers called JScript (based in JavaScript but really incompatible with the ECMAScript specification). JScript was important but the people preferred the compatibility between browsers and not the features on JScript, so they supported more the JavaScript implementation.

With this scenario, JavaScript become the unique supported programing language in the browsers. Other companies tried to create the next generation of browser-languages like Google with Dart but JavaScript is so expanded that it's practically impossible to be substituted in short-term.

izolate• 12 years ago

Dart has replaced Node.js for me, not JavaScript.

nhebb• 12 years ago

Microsoft also pushed VBScript in the browser. They've finally dropped support for it in IE 11: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ie/dn384057%28v=vs.8...

BrendanEich4• 12 years ago

I've written and spoken a lot about the early days. Just one example:

http://chimera.labs.oreilly.com/books/1234000001808/pr02.htm...

Ask HN: Why did JavaScript win the browser?

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