JavaScript
From TheLinuxVault
JavaScript is a prominent client-side web scripting language. The stewardship over it is maintained by Mozilla, while new standards for the language are set by ECMA International.
In the context of viewing a web page, Client-side means that the JavaScript script is run by the web browser on the viewer's computer, rather than by the server which is providing the web service. Among several reasons for this approach are: to reduce load on the server; to reduce the amount of internet traffic; and, increasingly important, to enable the viewed web page to be more personalised for the viewer. The main drawback is that it is impossible for the web designer to know the specifications of all viewer's browsers which do not all conform to the ECMA standards or may be set to not run scripts at all.
The name JavaScript is misleading in that it has nothing to do with Java but was coined around the time that Java was an exciting new buzzword in the hope that some interest would rub off onto the new scripting technology.
