Newsletter sign-up
View all newsletters

Enterprise Java Newsletter
Stay up to date on the latest tutorials and Java community news posted on JavaWorld

Sponsored Links

Optimize with a SATA RAID Storage Solution
Range of capacities as low as $1250 per TB. Ideal if you currently rely on servers/disks/JBODs

JavaWorld.com

Bending over backward to make JavaScript work on 14 platforms

A candid discussion with the man behind 'the scripting language'

By Rawn Shah, JavaWorld.com, 04/01/96

  • Print
  • Feedback
.
Earlier this year, JavaWorld's JavaScript columnist Rawn Shah conducted a virtual interview (via e-mail) with Brendan Eich, a technical staff member of Netscape Communications who has been working on the Navigator 2.0 project and was hired to do "the scripting language," which has evolved into what is now known as JavaScript.

JW: How long have you been on the Navigator 2.0 project?

BE: I joined 2.0 a little late, coming from some next-generation protocol work for the server group, followed by some early Java investigation.

JW: What got you interested in this work?

BE: I actually was hired to do what was called "the scripting language," but by the time I joined, Java was getting big. However, it became clear over much arguing, and with prodding from Marc Andreessen, that Java was not a scripting language in the following sense: You can't write hunks of code with loosely-typed variables to glue together components that you don't write -- every Java program must have a class containing a method, and you have to run a compiler to get Java bytecode.

So we saw a need for an interpreted-from-source, dynamically typed language with which one could orchestrate the interactions among HTML form elements and links, Java applets, plug-ins, and other components. The audience for this language, we hoped, would consist of HTML authors who had some programming experience, but did not need a lot in order to write a script. Java is great for component writers and should prove useful for applications platform programming; some day, I hope, with the right extensions and native compilers, [it will be great] even for systems programming.

But you shouldn't have to write a Java applet to make a click on an HTML button open a new window containing the URL typed into a nearby text input. Moreover, we'd like to let script writers integrate Java and plug-in components that they don't know how to write, and then author HTML pages that compose these elements. This approach lets HTML play to its strengths, and Java to its strengths, and frees the scripters from having to over-specialize. It helps users find the best tool tradeoffs.

JW: How do you like it at Netscape now that the company is on top of the world?

BE: I'm very happy to be at Netscape, and pleased with our continued success. After years of systems programming, compiler hacking, and network tool building, I find it very rewarding to contribute to the application platform we're building. The long-anticipated "next layer" of networked portable runtimes and machine-independent object file formats finally is commercially viable, thanks to the Internet.

JW: Who else in the Netscape team is avidly working with the JavaScript language?

BE: A lot of our content people are getting into JavaScript and Frames -- you can see their work at http://proto.netscape.com. I have many customers internal to our product development organization, including new server projects, the LiveWire team, and client folks who are helping to make Navigator more scriptable in future releases.

  • Print
  • Feedback

Resources