Client-side scripting
JavaScript is now overwhelmingly the language of choice for client-side scripting. Not only do the two major browser vendors (Microsoft and Netscape) fully support it, but so do many up and coming browsers such as Opera, Konqueror, and iCab. Not only are current versions of Netscape based on the open-source Mozilla project but so are many others browsers (most significantly, from the point of view of market share, the newest browsers for AOL and CompuServe), thereby sharing in its excellent JavaScript support.
The increasing (de facto) standardisation for client-side scripting in web browsers has been driven by several distinct forces:
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Core JavaScript is now standardised under ECMA-262. Both Microsoft's and Netscape's most recent versions of JavaScript (JavaScript 1.5 and JScript 5.5 respectively) are fully conformant with the most recent 3rd edition of ECMA-262.
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The W3C DOM (Levels 1 and 2) is now being aggressively adopted by browser vendors. This, in unison with the adoption of other W3C standards (such as HTML 4.01, XHTML 1.0, and CSS Levels 1 and 2), has greatly eased the possibility of creating genuinely cross-browser DHTML.
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The Mozilla project has open-sourced the source-code for Netscape's JavaScript interpreters (one written in C, the other written in Java), allowing others to embed them in their applications.
From simple client-side form checking, to sophisticated DHTML, to relatively complex client-side applications, JavaScript allows for greater degrees of dynamic, interactive content to be controlled and created on the client machine, reducing load on servers, network traffic, and increasing the reactivity of sites. Careful design ensures that clients which do not support JavaScript see no loss of functionality.
Copyright © 2001, 2002 Darren
Brierton
Last modified: Fri May 3 18:30:57 BST 2002
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