JavaScript

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JavaScript (or ECMAScript) is a styling language designed for use in the Netscape web browser, but later became a web standard. Javascript was originally used to stylize web pages in a way much like CSS, but in recent years people have been using it as if it were an actual programming language. Creator Brendan Eich has been quoted as saying that Javascript "had to ‘look like Java’ only less so, be Java's dumb kid brother or boy-hostage sidekick. Plus, it had to be done in ten days or something worse than JavaScript would have happened."

The language was originally named ECMAscript (and is still referred to as that by some), but was renamed JavaScript due to trademark disputes by Sun Microsystems.

Controversy

Many people hate Javascript. When it began, it was just a neat sort of thing that allowed pages to be animated. However, later on (for a number of reasons, including the failed web 2.0 philosophy), Javascript became a primary element of RUE websites, causing a page that only needs 1mb at most to be 40mb in Javascript.

Security risks in Javascript are extensive. Javascript can also be used to make a keylogger. This is used on many websites.

The fact that Javascript later evolved into a programming language prompted the FSF to give a guideline for adding software licenses to Javascript code, after Richard Stallman wrote an article called The Javascript Trap. LibreJS is a web plugin designed by the FSF to block non-free javascript.