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The crazy and fascinating 25 year old history of JavaScript in one thread.
December 1990: Sir Tim Berners-Lee develops the first web browser the world has ever seen.
January 1993 : Marc Andersen develops Mosaic at the University of Illinois, this web browser that brought internet browsing into the mainstream.
No JavaScript yet
No JavaScript yet
Marc Andersen co-founds Netscape along with James Clark. Netscape is the company which developed the Netscape navigator which would control around 80% of the browser market in a couple of years.
Despite all the great advancements in browsers,there was one pretty big issue.
Developers wanted some language to make their websites more interactive
Developers wanted some language to make their websites more interactive
Their first choice was Java. Why you may ask?
Because it was super popular at the time! But they soon realised that they wanted something more dynamic.
Because it was super popular at the time! But they soon realised that they wanted something more dynamic.
. @BrendanEich was given the task to put the scheme language in the browser and just ten days later he created a language called Mocha. 
Mocha has syntax similar to Java,first class functions like scheme and dynamic types like lisp. Mocha was then renamed to LiveScript 
â and then to * drumrole * JavaScript.
â and then to * drumrole * JavaScript.
June 1997: The first standardized version of JavaScript ES1 is approved followed by ES2 in 1998 which was mostly unchanged.
1999 was a crucial year for JavaScript, it would be the last version of ECMAScript(ES3) for the next decade
1999 was a crucial year for JavaScript, it would be the last version of ECMAScript(ES3) for the next decade
In 2000 the tech bubble burst, the nasdaq composite (an index of stocks, mostly tech ones) lost 70% of its value. Netscape was was acquired by AOL in 1999.
Netscape was one the main organisation which contributed to the development of JavaScript.
Netscape was one the main organisation which contributed to the development of JavaScript.
ES4 and ES3.1 were a total disaster and never saw light
August 2006 : John Resig creates jQuery. It was the first Js library that had a huge impact on the industry. Today jQuery is the most widely used Js library.
August 2006 : John Resig creates jQuery. It was the first Js library that had a huge impact on the industry. Today jQuery is the most widely used Js library.
September 2008: Google releases chrome and the V8 engine. (Very important!)
The V8 engine powers Node.js which was developed by Ryan Dahl in 2009, this allowed Js to be run anywhere really!
In 2009 we also saw the release of ES5 which added features like JSON and strict mode.
The V8 engine powers Node.js which was developed by Ryan Dahl in 2009, this allowed Js to be run anywhere really!
In 2009 we also saw the release of ES5 which added features like JSON and strict mode.
In 2010 we saw the release of Angular which popularised Single page applications.
In 2013, Facebook released react which is one of the most popular frontend JS frameworks we have today.
Several frameworks like electron, react native, svelte etc. came into being allowing you to do all sorts of crazy things with JavaScript.
Several frameworks like electron, react native, svelte etc. came into being allowing you to do all sorts of crazy things with JavaScript.
In 2015 we got ES6 which bought a lot of awesome features to the language like arrow functions, promises, let/const etc.
In 2016, ES7 was released which had minor changes.
In 2017 we got ES8 with Aysnc/Await!
In 2016, ES7 was released which had minor changes.
In 2017 we got ES8 with Aysnc/Await!
We finally come to 2020 with the release of ES2020 with tons of new features like BigInt,Nullish Coalescing etc.
