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Java was open source and Sun wanted Netscape to embed Java in their browser. According to Brendan Eich, Netscape considered having both JS and Java along with a

Java was open source and Sun wanted Netscape to embed Java in their browser. According to Brendan Eich, Netscape considered having both JS and Java along with a canvas element both could draw on, but time constraints dictated otherwise. So Java ended up being used as a plugin.

colordrops 8y ago
Was java ever truly free though? Oracle's shenanigans indicate otherwise.
- microcolonel 8y ago
  > Was java ever truly free though? Oracle's shenanigans indicate otherwise. It probably could have been, pre-Oracle.
  - BrendanEich 8y ago
    No, Sun was not looking to open it up and even got in a spat with Microsoft over Java. MS responded by pulling Java out of Windows, which broke Outlook Web Access and required fast work to implement the first XMLHttpRequest Active X implementation of that now-standard XHR (=> Fetch) API as replacement for the Java async-io class that OWA used while Java was in Windows.
    - microcolonel 8y ago
      I meant that Oracle is less amenable to fixing the social issues they create surrounding their products, which hamper their usefulness.
stuaxo 8y ago
Wow, this really would have been a different past - similarly if flash had been able to draw into elements in the dom properly.
- BrendanEich 8y ago
  Alas we could not lure Andrew C. Myers away from his PhD at MIT under Liskov, which would have dashed his academic future hopes (he is a professor at Cornell). Netscape also had Jonathan Gay and his brother stop by to try to sell FutureSplash (what became Flash) to us post IPO, but so many companies were crowding the door, and the marketing guy vetting them was harsh, so they went to Macromedia. That was for the best: Netscape would not have built the great tools that Macromedia did. So two "what if" near-misses re: early canvas-for-HTML. Sad but true!
BrendanEich 8y ago
From https://devchat.tv/js-jabber/124-jsj-the-origin-of-javascript-with-brendan-eich/ https://devchat.tv/js-jabber/124-jsj-the-origin-of-javascrip... Transcript: https://devchat.cachefly.net/javascriptjabber/transcript-124-jsj-the-origin-of-javascript-with-brendan-eich-js-jabber.pdf https://devchat.cachefly.net/javascriptjabber/transcript-124... Find "Andrew Myers"

colordrops 8y ago

Was java ever truly free though? Oracle's shenanigans indicate otherwise.

microcolonel 8y ago
> Was java ever truly free though? Oracle's shenanigans indicate otherwise. It probably could have been, pre-Oracle.
- BrendanEich 8y ago
  No, Sun was not looking to open it up and even got in a spat with Microsoft over Java. MS responded by pulling Java out of Windows, which broke Outlook Web Access and required fast work to implement the first XMLHttpRequest Active X implementation of that now-standard XHR (=> Fetch) API as replacement for the Java async-io class that OWA used while Java was in Windows.
  - microcolonel 8y ago
    I meant that Oracle is less amenable to fixing the social issues they create surrounding their products, which hamper their usefulness.

stuaxo 8y ago

Wow, this really would have been a different past - similarly if flash had been able to draw into elements in the dom properly.

BrendanEich 8y ago
Alas we could not lure Andrew C. Myers away from his PhD at MIT under Liskov, which would have dashed his academic future hopes (he is a professor at Cornell). Netscape also had Jonathan Gay and his brother stop by to try to sell FutureSplash (what became Flash) to us post IPO, but so many companies were crowding the door, and the marketing guy vetting them was harsh, so they went to Macromedia. That was for the best: Netscape would not have built the great tools that Macromedia did. So two "what if" near-misses re: early canvas-for-HTML. Sad but true!

BrendanEich 8y ago

From https://devchat.tv/js-jabber/124-jsj-the-origin-of-javascript-with-brendan-eich/ https://devchat.tv/js-jabber/124-jsj-the-origin-of-javascrip... Transcript: https://devchat.cachefly.net/javascriptjabber/transcript-124-jsj-the-origin-of-javascript-with-brendan-eich-js-jabber.pdf https://devchat.cachefly.net/javascriptjabber/transcript-124... Find "Andrew Myers"