What is JavaScript?

• JavaScript began as LiveScript, Netscape's own scripting language. But in late 1995, Sun endorsed it, and it became known as JavaScript.
• JavaScript borrows much of the basic syntax and structure of Java, and implements some of the same security, preventing it from writing to the local disk.
• JavaScript is an interpreted language, which makes it simpler to learn.
• JavaScript is a script written directly into HTML pages.
• JavaScript is designed to react to user and computer events, as well as, in the future, it will connect Java applets more seamlessly into Web pages.

Here are a couple of samples of JavaScript in action:

1. Scrolling messages, like the one you should be seeing at the bottom of the screen,
are easily done using JavaScript.

2. Alert messages, like the one that you get when you point your cursor at the image
below, are also done with JavaScript.

To see how it is done, you can look at the source code for this page, which is a
menu choice, with your browser.

To see additional samples of JavaScript, visit our Samples of Java Applets and JavaScripts page.

For additional infomation about JavaScript, visit our Links to Other Sites page.

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