JavaScript History

JavaScript was invented by Brendan Eich in 1995.

It was developed for the Netscape browser, and then handed over to ECMA and became the ECMA-262 standard in 1997.

ECMA stands for the European Computer Manufacturers Association .

It was founded in 1961 as a non-profit industry association to develop standards for information technology, electronics, and programming languages.

ECMA is now officially known as Ecma International to reflect its global reach.

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.

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: 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: May 2016 Aug 2016 Mar 2017 Sep 2016 Jun 2016 Internet Explorer Retirement Internet Explorer 11 was the last major version of Internet Explorer. On June 15, 2022, the Internet Explorer 11 desktop application was replaced by Microsft Edge 79 in Windows 10. Date Announcement 15-06-2020 First Announcement: IE 11 goes out of support on June 15 2022 15-06-2020 Internet Explorer is replaced by Edge 79 in Windows 10 30-11-2020 MS Teams ended support for IE 11 31-12-2020 Azure DevOps Services ended support for IE 11 31-03-2021 Azure Portal ended support for IE 11 24-06-2021 Internet Explorer is disabled in Windows 11 17-08-2021 Microsoft ended support for IE 11 across web services: Office 365 - OneDrive - Outlook 15-06-2022 Microsoft ends all support for IE 11 Edge Lagacy Retirement The first versions of Microsoft Edge (12-18) are referred to as " Edge Legacy ". Edge was the default browser for Windows 10. Microsoft also ended support for Edge Legasy on June 15, 2022. Date Announcement 31-12-2020 Azure DevOps Services stops supporting Edge Legacy 09-03-2021 End of Windows updates for Edge Legacy 09-03-2021 Microsoft support for Edge Legacy ended 13-04-2021 Future Windows updates will remove Edge Legacy 15-06-2022 Microsoft ends all support for Edge Legacy The New Microsoft Edge The new Edge 79 was released in January 2020 and is available for Windows 7, 8, 10, and 11. It uses the Chromium open-source engine (same core as Google Chrome) It is faster, more secure, and more compatible with modern websites It supports Chrome extensions It has a new logo and updated user interface It follows the Modern Lifecycle Policy (updates on an approx. six-week cycle) It can also be downloaded for macOS, iOS, and Android It replaces Edge Legacy, which reached end of support on March 9, 2021

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 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:

ES6 was also a huge success. It was released in 2015, and all major browsers were fully compliant by March 2017:

Internet Explorer 11 was the last major version of Internet Explorer.

On June 15, 2022, the Internet Explorer 11 desktop application was replaced by Microsft Edge 79 in Windows 10.

The first versions of Microsoft Edge (12-18) are referred to as " Edge Legacy ".

Edge was the default browser for Windows 10.

Microsoft also ended support for Edge Legasy on June 15, 2022.

The new Edge 79 was released in January 2020 and is available for Windows 7, 8, 10, and 11.

• It uses the Chromium open-source engine (same core as Google Chrome)
• It is faster, more secure, and more compatible with modern websites
• It supports Chrome extensions
• It has a new logo and updated user interface
• It follows the Modern Lifecycle Policy (updates on an approx. six-week cycle)
• It can also be downloaded for macOS, iOS, and Android
• It replaces Edge Legacy, which reached end of support on March 9, 2021