Where is JavaScript?

Question

I see Java...

Coming from a Java background, there's something you install to get Java to run - i.e., the JRE. You're able to see the Java executable files right there on your hard drive.

But I don't see JavaScript...

Now enter JavaScript. I'll type something in Notepad, save it and open it on my browser. And it works just like magic!

Where exactly is JavaScript? Obviously it's embedded in the browser code, but there must be some core JavaScript library somewhere. Any browser didn't exist at one point, surely they got their core JavaScript code from some source.

In short...

1. Where is the source code of JavaScript itself? Something like jquery.js, backbone.js ... where is the "javascript.js"?

2. Who is the authority that establishes the requirements for JavaScript? While the custodian of Java is clearly Oracle, I don't see any counterpart "owner" for JavaScript.

• Ennui: I suspect the answers you seek lie here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JavaScript
• hamon: Javascript has no javascript.js. The language is specified and every browser creates it's own implementation which follows (as good as possible) the javascript specification.
• adeneo: It's embedded in the browser, and browser vendors use different engines to parse the code, and you can find the source code for those online -> code.google.com/p/v8/wiki/Source
• I don't use this profile anymo: Javascript is ECMAScript: ecmascript.org/docs.php
• digitalextremist: Mozilla is the continuation of Netscape

Answer 1

See >10-year update below.

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#1) *JavaScript Engines...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JavaScript_engine

Which engine is used differs by browser.

For example...

• Firefox: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Projects/SpiderMonkey

• Chrome: https://code.google.com/p/v8/

• Safari: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebKit#JavaScriptCore

• Internet Explorer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chakra_(JScript_engine)

• See Node.js below...

#2) *Who owns JavaScript? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JavaScript

It was born at Netscape ( first called 'Mocha' ), so it is maintained by Mozilla, i.e...

• https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/New_in_JavaScript/1.8.5

Netscape created The Mozilla Foundation, long ago, and the Mozilla suite of Firefox, Thunderbird, etc... is where Netscape Communicator went.

But yes, the trademark is technically "owned" by Oracle:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JavaScript#Trademark

#*JavaScript is actually an implementation of ECMAScript!

• https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Language_Resources
• https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript

It is standardized by ECMA: http://www.ecma-international.org/

Language Specification: http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-262.htm

JavaScript is so integral to so many technologies that it is standardized. As I mentioned, it is maintained by ECMA, just like HTML, XML and CSS are standards maintained by W3C.

( ECMA: European Computer Manufacturers Association )

Node.js... JavaScript beyond browser engines.

JavaScript is moving in a direction similar to Java too, with things like Node.js happening. Node.js is a JavaScript Engine, without a browser... meaning, JavaScript is now server-side as well as client-side. It is becoming as much a programming language as it is a scripting language, some believe.

Update: Bun... and others, went beyond Node.js

In the >10 years since this question was asked and answered, a lot has happened. I currently rely completely on Bun outside the browser, for more and more; especially as we see the rise of local-only LLMs, and the increase of TypeScript to more and more relevance and presence.

That includes the package manager and removes need for npm and for the most part removes need for tsc and also pretty much everything else normally needed by a pure-TypeScript package, outside the browser.

It is radically fast, in how it runs, in how it packages, etc.

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In my opinion ... as with other scripting and programming languages, JavaScript is truly owned by the Open Source community. Coders make suggestions about its specification and contribute to its engines. Testers, developers, 'users' and technology manufacturers and inventors who expand JavaScript are the ones who guide it in reality.

The "legal" owners depend on the Open Source community. They benefit from the community, and hold ownership like a trophy, or a title to defend, often just to protect the reliability of the technology as a viable corporate option. Oracle is well known for doing this. They did this with MySQL, VirtualBox, etc. Oracle is more of a curator than an owner.

• Question Everything: Aaah Engine! That's the keyword.
• Question Everything: Hmm about question 2: who "owns" Javascript?
• adeneo: @QuestionEverything - Noone owns javascript, but it's currently maintained by Mozilla
• slebetman: My comment turned out too long so I'm going to write an answer

Answer 2

Javascript (JS) is the client side language and it is embeded into the browser's parser which is actually the core of the browser and control the browser. In parser there are also css, html and other client side languages thats why browser execute the javascript, css, html, xml and other client side languages.

It has also become common in server-side programming, game development and the creation of desktop applications. Its syntax was influenced by C. JavaScript copies many names and naming conventions from Java, but the two languages are otherwise unrelated and have very different semantics. The key design principles within JavaScript are taken from the Self and Scheme programming languages. It is a multi-paradigm language, supporting object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles.

JavaScript was formalized in the ECMAScript language standard and is primarily used as part of a web browser (client-side JavaScript). This enables programmatic access to computational objects within a host environment.

Javascript appeared in 1995 and designed by Brendan Eich and developer was Netscape Communications Corporation, Mozilla Foundation.

When ever you see the javascript file it has extension of js (javascript).

JavaScript was born at Sun Microsystems. It was used under license for technology invented and implemented by Netscape Communications and current entities such as the Mozilla Foundation.

jQuery is written in javascript language.

jQuery is a cross-platform, fast, small, and feature-rich JavaScript library and greatly simplifies JavaScript programming.

See also the link

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JavaScript_engine

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JavaScript

Answer 3

I'm interpreting "who owns javascript" as who has the right to define how javascript works. In which case it's not Oracle (they only own the name).

The language colloquially known as "javascript" are implementations of a standard maintained by ECMA International (previously known as the European Computer Manufacturers Association). The specificatoin is ECMA-262, also known as Ecmascript.

Note that what people call "javascript" are not the only implementations of Ecmascript. Flash, the embedded web widget technology owned by Adobe, ran Actionscript which is also an implementation (though not really compatible) as is the scripting language in Adobe software such as Photoshop.

However, Ecmascript merely defines the syntax and semantics of the language. It hardly ever defines any function or object or class (what other languages refer to as standard library). The standard set of built-in functions for browsers are defined in another standard. The DOM (Document Object Model) is a standard that used to be maintained by W3C (World-Wide Web Consortium) but is now maintained by a WHATWG (a group started by Apple, Google, Mozilla and Microsoft) but is ratified by W3C on a yearly basis.

Apart form the DOM, WHATWG also maintains a bunch of standards related to javascript including the Fetch API, the console API (how console.log() is supposed to work), WebSockets, the URL API etc.

So who defines what Javascript is? There are two organisations:

• ECMA defines the syntax of the language

• WHATWG defines the standard library

Outside of browsers Ecmascript based languages differ wildly though these days some (maybe only Bun) try to be as compatible with Node.js as much as possible. For example ActionScript has very different set of standard library from Node.js or Bun even for doing common things like opening and reading a file. Same with Rhino (a javascript runtime written in Java), which is not compatible with Node.js or ActionScript. For the most part the only "standard" of javascript outside of browsers is Node.js, which is maintained by the Node.js Technical Steering Committee.