Languages

JavaScript

Also Known As JS

Citation Formats

General Reference

Computing Atlas. "JavaScript." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://computing.interactiveatlas.org/languages/javascript.

APA Style

Computing Atlas. (n.d.). JavaScript. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://computing.interactiveatlas.org/languages/javascript

BibTeX

@misc{computingatlas-javascript,
  author = {Computing Atlas},
  title = {JavaScript},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://computing.interactiveatlas.org/languages/javascript},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

JavaScript is a programming language created by Brendan Eich at Netscape Communications in 1995, designed to let web pages respond to user actions directly inside the browser without a round trip to a server. Despite being written in about ten days under deadline pressure, it became the standard scripting language of the web, embedded in every major browser, and later, through platforms such as Node.js, a widely used language for server side and general purpose software as well.

Facts

First Released

1995 1

Paradigm

Multi paradigm: event driven, functional, prototype based object oriented 1

Significance

Became the standard scripting language of the web, run inside essentially every browser in the world, and later a major server side language as well. 1

Cross-Tradition Connections

In Field

Software Engineering

Source Encyclopedia Britannica: Computer ScienceEncyclopedia Britannica Editors

Influenced By

JavaScript's curly brace, C style syntax was carried over through Java, which Netscape asked Brendan Eich to make JavaScript resemble at the surface level, rather than through a direct line of descent from C itself.

Source Encyclopedia Britannica: Computer ScienceEncyclopedia Britannica Editors