Java Vs JavaScript – Why is JavaScript called JavaScript?

Most of the beginner programmers are often confused between Java and JavaScript programming language. Both programming languages are different, Java is best suitable for Back-end programming where JavaScript is suitable for front-end programming. There are a lot of differences which we will discuss in this article.

Let’s discuss the difference between Java and JavaScript

Java Programming

Java was originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems (which has since been acquired by Oracle Corporation) and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems’ Java platform.

Java is a general-purpose computer programming language. It is concurrent, class-based, object-oriented, and specifically designed to have as few implementation dependencies as possible. It is intended to let application developers “write once, run anywhere”. The compiled Java code can run on all platforms that support Java without the need for recompilation.

Hello world Program in Java

public class HelloWorld {
    public static void main( String[] args ) {
        System.out.println( "Hello World!" );
        System.exit( 0 ); //success
    }
}

Java applications are typically compiled to bytecode that can run on any Java virtual machine (JVM) regardless of computer architecture. As of 2016, Java is one of the most popular programming languages in use, particularly for client-server web applications, with a reported 9 million developers.

JavaScript Programming

JavaScript is a high-level, dynamic, untyped, and interpreted run-time language It has been standardized in the ECMAScript language specification. Alongside HTML and CSS, JavaScript is one of the three core technologies of World Wide Web content production; the majority of websites employ it, and all modern Web browsers support it without the need for plug-ins.

Hello World Program in JavaScript

<script>
    alert( 'Hello, world!' );
  </script>

JavaScript is prototype-based with first-class functions, making it a multi-paradigm language, supporting object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles. It has an API for working with text, arrays, dates and regular expressions, but does not include any I/O, such as networking, storage, or graphics facilities, relying for these upon the host environment in which it is embedded.

Why is JavaScript called JavaScript?

JavaScript was originally named Mocha, later it was renamed to LiveScript, and then to JavaScript. The LiveScript to JavaScript name change came because Netscape and Sun did a license agreement.

The language was then submitted for standardization to the ECMA International Organization. By that time, Netscape didn’t allow the use of the “JavaScript” name, so the standardized language is named ECMAScript. JavaScript isn’t actually an open name. Now it’s a trademark of Sun (now Oracle).

There still a lot of confusion, some people still think that JavaScript, JScript, and ECMAScript are three different languages. ECMAScript is the “standards” name for the language. JavaScript is technically a “dialect” of ECMAScript, the Mozilla Foundation can use “JavaScript” as the name of their implementations (currently present on the Rhino and SpiderMonkey engines).

In the early days, Microsoft decided also to do what Netscape was doing on their own browser, and they developed JScript, which is also an ECMAScript dialect but was named in this way to avoid trademark issues.