JavaScript Everywhere

JavaScript has become a popular language.  Invented by Brendan Eich at Netscape, JavaScript has been responsible for taking the web page to an interactive level without plug-ins. Microsoft Internet Explorer emulates JavaScript using their own version of the language called JScript. JavaScript's use goes well beyond the browser to server-side scripting as well as administrative scripts.

DHTML

DHTML, or Dynamic HyperText Markup Language, has added a level of interactivity to a web page allowing it to "rewrite" itself. The static HTML becomes dynamic. This is possible through several technologies: HTML 4.0, the DOM, CSS, and scripting (usually JavaScript!). JavaScript has become key in the "thin" client revolution allowing the distribution of web applications and giving the client a little more brains than simply a static web page.

Server-Side JavaScript

Netscape has offered SSJS (Server-Side JavaScript) since the beginning, but Microsoft has also included JavaScript on the server via Active Server Pages. ASP's can be written in any language that has been ported to the ActiveX Scripting Engine. This includes VBScript, JScript, PerlScript (Perl) and several others.

Windows Scripting Host

JavaScript can also be used by Windows 98, NT4, and Win2000 administrators to reduce some of the repetitive tasks involved in network administration. Windows Scripting Host (WSH) allows Windows admins to do what UNIX admins have been able to do for many years, write scripts! JavaScript (actually JScript) can create user accounts, file sharing, and many other resources that are needed on a corporate computer network. Read more about WSH in Windows NT Magazine or at Microsoft's web site.

ECMAScript

ECMA is a standards organization in Switzerland, and one of the many technologies that they have standardized is JavaScript. The ECMA-262 standard is based on Netscape JavaScript and Microsoft JScript in attempt to create a common ground that web developers can write to so that the code will work in both browsers.