JavaScript
     
         (Formerly "LiveScript") Netscape's simple,
        cross-platform, World-Wide Web scripting language, only
        very vaguely related to Java (which is a Sun trademark).
        JavaScript is intimately tied to the World-Wide Web, and
        currently runs in only three environments - as a server-side
        scripting language, as an embedded language in
        server-parsed HTML, and as an embedded language run in web
        browsers where it is the most important part of DHTML.
     
        JavaScript has a simplified C-like syntax and is tightly
        integrated with the browser Document Object Model.  It is
        useful for implementing enhanced forms, simple web
        database front-ends, and navigation enhancements.
     
        JavaScript originated from Netscape and, for a time, only
        their products supported it.  Microsoft now supports a
        work-alike called JScript.  The resulting inconsistencies make
        it difficult to write JavaScript that behaves the same in all
        browsers.  This could be attributed to the slow progress of
        JavaScript through the standards bodies.
     
        JavaScript runs "100x" slower than C, as it is purely
        interpreted (Java runs "10x" slower than C code).
        Netscape and allies say JavaScript is an "open standard" in
        an effort to keep Microsoft from monopolising web software
        as they have desktop software.  Netscape and Sun have
        co-operated to enable Java and JavaScript to exchange
        messages and data.
     
        See also VBScript.
     
        Usenet newsgroup: news:comp.lang.javascript.
     
        Mailing List:  ("subscribe javascript"
        in body).
     
        (2003-04-28)