JavaScript History
Posted: Fri Oct 27, 2023 9:07 am
JavaScript History
JavaScript / ECMAScript
JavaScript was invented by Brendan Eich in 1995.
It was developed for Netscape 2, and became the ECMA-262 standard in 1997.
After Netscape handed JavaScript over to ECMA, the Mozilla foundation
continued to develop JavaScript for the Firefox browser.
Mozilla's latest version was 1.8.5. (Identical to ES5).
Internet Explorer (IE4) was the first browser to support ECMA-262 Edition 1 (ES1).
Year
ECMABrowser
1995
JavaScript was invented by Brendan Eich
1996
Netscape 2 was released with JavaScript 1.0
1997
JavaScript became an ECMA standard (ECMA-262)
1997
ES1
ECMAScript 1 was released
1997
ES1
IE 4 was the first browser to support ES1
1998
ES2
ECMAScript 2 was released
1998
Netscape 42 was released with JavaScript 1.3
1999
ES2
IE 5 was the first browser to support ES2
1999
ES3
ECMAScript 3 was released
2000
ES3
IE 5.5 was the first browser to support ES3
2000
Netscape 62 was released with JavaScript 1.5
2000
Firefox 1 was released with JavaScript 1.5
2008
ES4
ECMAScript 4 was abandoned
2009
ES5
ECMAScript 5 was released
2011
ES5
IE 9 was the first browser to support ES5 *
2011
ES5
Firefox 4 was released with JavaScript 1.8.5
2012
ES5
Full support for ES5 in Safari 6
2012
ES5
Full support for ES5 in IE 10
2012
ES5
Full support for ES5 in Chrome 23
2013
ES5
Full support for ES5 in Firefox 21
2013
ES5
Full support for ES5 in Opera 15
2014
ES5
Full support for ES5 in all browsers
2015
ES6
ECMAScript 6 was released
2016
ES6
Full support for ES6 in Chrome 51
2016
ES6
Full support for ES6 in Opera 38
2016
ES6
Full support for ES6 in Safari 10
2017
ES6
Full support for ES6 in Firefox 54
2017
ES6
Full support for ES6 in Edge 15
2018
ES6
Full support for ES6 in all browsers **
Note
* Internet Explorer 9 did not support ES5 "use strict".
** Internet Explorer 11 does not support ES6.
The ECMA Technical Committee 39
In 1996, Netscape and Brendan Eich took JavaScript to the ECMA international standards organization,
and a technical committee (TC39) was created to develop the language.
ECMA-262 Edition 1 was released in June 1997.
From ES4 to ES6
When the TC39 committee got together in Oslo in 2008, to agree on ECMAScript 4, they were divided into
2 very different camps:
The ECMAScript 3.1 Camp:
Microsoft and Yahoo who wanted an incremental upgrade from ES3.
The ECMAScript 4 Camp:
Adobe, Mozilla, Opera, and Google who wanted a massive ES4 upgrade.
August 13 2008, Brendan Eich wrote an
email:
It's no secret that the JavaScript standards body, Ecma's Technical
Committee 39, has been split for over a year, with some members
favoring ES4, a major fourth edition to ECMA-262, and others
advocating ES3.1 based on the existing ECMA-262 Edition 3 (ES3)
specification. Now, I'm happy to report, the split is over.
The solution was to work together:
ECMAScript 4 was renamed to ES5
ES5 should be an incremental upgrade of ECMAScript 3.
Features of ECMAScript 4 should be picked up in later versions.
TC39 should develop a new major release, bigger in scope than ES5.
The planned new release (ES6) was codenamed "Harmony" (Because of the split it created?).
ES5 was a huge success. It was released in 2009, and all major browsers (including Internet Explorer) were fully
compliant by July 2013:
Chrome 23
IE10 / Edge
Firefox 21
Safari 6
Opera 15
Nov 2012
Sep 2012
May 2013
Jul 2012
Jul 2013
ES6 was also a huge success. It was released in 2015, and all major browsers were fully compliant by March 2017:
Chrome 51
Edge 14
Firefox 52
Safari 10
Opera 38
May 2016
Aug 2016
Mar 2017
Sep 2016
Jun 2016
★
+1
Reference: https://www.w3schools.com/js/js_history.asp
JavaScript / ECMAScript
JavaScript was invented by Brendan Eich in 1995.
It was developed for Netscape 2, and became the ECMA-262 standard in 1997.
After Netscape handed JavaScript over to ECMA, the Mozilla foundation
continued to develop JavaScript for the Firefox browser.
Mozilla's latest version was 1.8.5. (Identical to ES5).
Internet Explorer (IE4) was the first browser to support ECMA-262 Edition 1 (ES1).
Year
ECMABrowser
1995
JavaScript was invented by Brendan Eich
1996
Netscape 2 was released with JavaScript 1.0
1997
JavaScript became an ECMA standard (ECMA-262)
1997
ES1
ECMAScript 1 was released
1997
ES1
IE 4 was the first browser to support ES1
1998
ES2
ECMAScript 2 was released
1998
Netscape 42 was released with JavaScript 1.3
1999
ES2
IE 5 was the first browser to support ES2
1999
ES3
ECMAScript 3 was released
2000
ES3
IE 5.5 was the first browser to support ES3
2000
Netscape 62 was released with JavaScript 1.5
2000
Firefox 1 was released with JavaScript 1.5
2008
ES4
ECMAScript 4 was abandoned
2009
ES5
ECMAScript 5 was released
2011
ES5
IE 9 was the first browser to support ES5 *
2011
ES5
Firefox 4 was released with JavaScript 1.8.5
2012
ES5
Full support for ES5 in Safari 6
2012
ES5
Full support for ES5 in IE 10
2012
ES5
Full support for ES5 in Chrome 23
2013
ES5
Full support for ES5 in Firefox 21
2013
ES5
Full support for ES5 in Opera 15
2014
ES5
Full support for ES5 in all browsers
2015
ES6
ECMAScript 6 was released
2016
ES6
Full support for ES6 in Chrome 51
2016
ES6
Full support for ES6 in Opera 38
2016
ES6
Full support for ES6 in Safari 10
2017
ES6
Full support for ES6 in Firefox 54
2017
ES6
Full support for ES6 in Edge 15
2018
ES6
Full support for ES6 in all browsers **
Note
* Internet Explorer 9 did not support ES5 "use strict".
** Internet Explorer 11 does not support ES6.
The ECMA Technical Committee 39
In 1996, Netscape and Brendan Eich took JavaScript to the ECMA international standards organization,
and a technical committee (TC39) was created to develop the language.
ECMA-262 Edition 1 was released in June 1997.
From ES4 to ES6
When the TC39 committee got together in Oslo in 2008, to agree on ECMAScript 4, they were divided into
2 very different camps:
The ECMAScript 3.1 Camp:
Microsoft and Yahoo who wanted an incremental upgrade from ES3.
The ECMAScript 4 Camp:
Adobe, Mozilla, Opera, and Google who wanted a massive ES4 upgrade.
August 13 2008, Brendan Eich wrote an
email:
It's no secret that the JavaScript standards body, Ecma's Technical
Committee 39, has been split for over a year, with some members
favoring ES4, a major fourth edition to ECMA-262, and others
advocating ES3.1 based on the existing ECMA-262 Edition 3 (ES3)
specification. Now, I'm happy to report, the split is over.
The solution was to work together:
ECMAScript 4 was renamed to ES5
ES5 should be an incremental upgrade of ECMAScript 3.
Features of ECMAScript 4 should be picked up in later versions.
TC39 should develop a new major release, bigger in scope than ES5.
The planned new release (ES6) was codenamed "Harmony" (Because of the split it created?).
ES5 was a huge success. It was released in 2009, and all major browsers (including Internet Explorer) were fully
compliant by July 2013:
Chrome 23
IE10 / Edge
Firefox 21
Safari 6
Opera 15
Nov 2012
Sep 2012
May 2013
Jul 2012
Jul 2013
ES6 was also a huge success. It was released in 2015, and all major browsers were fully compliant by March 2017:
Chrome 51
Edge 14
Firefox 52
Safari 10
Opera 38
May 2016
Aug 2016
Mar 2017
Sep 2016
Jun 2016
★
+1
Reference: https://www.w3schools.com/js/js_history.asp