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Discussion on: How programming languages got their names

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natourfaris profile image
Faris Natour • Edited

Not sure if this comment is in jest, but that's not too far from how Javascript did actually get its name.

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jmfayard profile image
Jean-Michel πŸ•΅πŸ»β€β™‚οΈ Fayard

Correct.
Specifically I was amused that it was called Javasomething because Java was the hot web programming language. That didn't last :D

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JavaScript#B...

In 1995, Netscape Communications recruited Brendan Eich with the goal of embedding the Scheme programming language into its Netscape Navigator.[18] Before he could get started, Netscape Communications collaborated with Sun Microsystems to include Sun's more static programming language, Java, in Netscape Navigator so as to compete with Microsoft for user adoption of Web technologies and platforms.[19] Netscape Communications then decided that the scripting language they wanted to create would complement Java and should have a similar syntax, which excluded adopting other languages such as Perl, Python, TCL, or Scheme. To defend the idea of JavaScript against competing proposals, the company needed a prototype. Eich wrote one in 10 days, in May 1995.

Although it was developed under the name Mocha, the language was officially called LiveScript when it first shipped in beta releases of Netscape Navigator 2.0 in September 1995, but it was renamed JavaScript when it was deployed in the Netscape Navigator 2.0 beta 3 in December.[2][20] The final choice of name caused confusion, giving the impression that the language was a spin-off of the Java programming language, and the choice has been characterized[21] as a marketing ploy by Netscape to give JavaScript the cachet of what was then the hot new Web programming language.

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dar5hak profile image
Darshak Parikh

I wonder what the world would have been like, had they gone with Scheme instead of Java.