N ETSCAPE AND S UN A NNOUNCE J AVA S CRIPT, THE O PEN, C ROSS-PLATFORM O BJECT S CRIPTING L ANGUAGE FOR E NTERPRISE N ETWORKS AND THE I NTERNET 28 I NDUSTRY-LEADING C OMPANIES TO E NDORSE J AVA S CRIPT AS A C OMPLEMENT TO J AVA FOR E ASY O NLINE A PPLICATION D EVELOPMENT
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (December 4, 1995) -- Netscape Communications Corporation (NASDAQ: NSCP) and Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ:SUNW), today announced JavaScript, an open, cross-platform object scripting language for the creation and customization of applications on enterprise networks and the Internet. The JavaScript language complements Java, Sun's industry-leading object-oriented, cross-platform programming language. The initial version of JavaScript is available now as part of the beta version of Netscape Navigator 2.0, which is currently available for downloading from Netscape's web site.
In addition, 28 industry-leading companies, including America Online, Inc., Apple Computer, Inc., Architext Software, Attachmate Corporation, AT&T;, Borland International, Brio Technology, Inc., Computer Associates, Inc., Digital Equipment Corporation, Hewlett-Packard Company, Iconovex Corporation, Illustra Information Technologies, Inc., Informix Software, Inc., Intuit, Inc., Macromedia, Metrowerks, Inc., Novell, Inc., Oracle Corporation, Paper Software, Inc., Precept Software, Inc., RAD Technologies, Inc., The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc., Silicon Graphics, Inc., Spider Technologies, Sybase, Inc., Toshiba Corporation, Verity, Inc., and Vermeer Technologies, Inc., have endorsed JavaScript as an open standard object scripting language and intend to provide it in future products. The draft specification of JavaScript, as well as the final draft specification of Java, is planned for publishing and submission to appropriate standards bodies for industry review and comment this month.
JavaScript is an easy-to-use object scripting language designed for creating live online applications that link together objects and resources on both clients and servers. While Java is used by programmers to create new objects and applets, JavaScript is designed for use by HTML page authors and enterprise application developers to dynamically script the behavior of objects running on either the client or the server. JavaScript is analogous to Visual Basic in that it can be used by people with little or no programming experience to quickly construct complex applications. JavaScript's design represents the next generation of software designed specifically for the Internet and is:
designed for creating network-centric applications
complementary to and integrated with Java
complementary to and integrated with HTML
open and cross-platform.
With JavaScript, an HTML page might contain an intelligent form that performs loan payment or currency exchange calculations right on the client in response to user input. A multimedia weather forecast applet written in Java can be scripted by JavaScript to display appropriate images and sounds based on the current weather readings in a region. A server-side JavaScript script might pull data out of a relational database and format it in HTML on the fly. A page might contain JavaScript scripts that run on both the client and the server. On the server, the scripts might dynamically compose and format HTML content based on user preferences stored in a relational database, and on the client, the scripts would glue together an assortment of Java applets and HTML form elements into a live interactive user interface for specifying a net-wide search for information.
Java programs and JavaScript scripts are designed to run on both clients and servers, with JavaScript scripts used to modify the properties and behavior of Java objects, so the range of live online applications that dynamically present information to and interact with users over enterprise networks or the Internet is virtually unlimited. Netscape will support Java and JavaScript in client and server products as well as programming tools and applications to make this vision a reality.
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