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Brendan Eich addresses that topic in this interview. The whole interview is (very much!) worth a read but here's some key parts about the name https://www.info

by astura 6y ago

Brendan Eich addresses that topic in this interview. The whole interview is (very much!) worth a read but here's some key parts about the name https://www.infoworld.com/article/2653798/javascript-creator-ponders-past--future.html https://www.infoworld.com/article/2653798/javascript-creator... >It was all within six months from May till December (1995) that it was Mocha and then LiveScript. And then in early December, Netscape and Sun did a license agreement and it became JavaScript. And the idea was to make it a complementary scripting language to go with Java, with the compiled language. >[The idea of an accessable scripting language] was very strongly held by Marc Andreessen and myself. Bill Joy at Sun was the champion of it, which was very helpful because that’s how we got the name. And we were pushing it as a little brother to Java, as a complementary language like Visual Basic was to C++ in Microsoft’s language families at the time.

blakesterz 6y ago
Interesting! "JavaScript would have been the ideal name because that’s what everyone called it and that’s what the books call it. Microsoft couldn’t get a license from Sun so they called their implementation JScript. So ECMA wanted to call it something and they couldn’t get anybody to donate or they couldn’t get everybody to agree to a donation of the trademark, so they ended up inventing ECMAScript, which sounds a little like a skin disease. Nobody really wants it. "
dr-detroit 6y ago
Not supposed to talk about Bill Joy hes not a gazillionaire eCeleb
derefr 6y ago
So, basically, JavaScript was originally annointed to serve the function within the JVM ecosystem, that ended up being served by Groovy? Why didn’t that happen? And why did it take so long before we got Groovy instead, if Sun wanted was imagining something like it way back in 1995?
- alisonkisk 6y ago
  Sun had some great people and some good ideas and products, but as a coherent business it was a rolling train wreck.
  - hutzlibu 6y ago
    Which why they sadly ended up digested by Oracle.
    - pjmlp 6y ago
      Only after Google sent a couple of torpedoes and then went as if it wasn't their business.
      - hutzlibu 6y ago
        What torpedoes do you mean?
        pjmlp 6y ago
        Android and ripping Sun off. Then they were hoping that no one would buy them, not even themselves cared to own Java after their trick. So now they push Kotlin, while researching Fuchsia, and keep a bunch of lawyers quite happy.
        hutzlibu 6y ago
        So implementing and pushing Java in Android was a torpedo against Sun? Interesting logic.
        pjmlp 6y ago
        Android Java is not Java, and yes when I take someone's product and don't pay what the license specifies, while introducing an incomplete implementation, that is 100% ripping off. Thankfully we are going to have that settled in the near future, and then Android folks can party all night long with their Kotlin implementation and rename ART into KVM.
calibas 6y ago
I think if you combined the two "different" answers to why it's named JavaScript, you get the truth. Yes, it was promoted as a companion scripting language for Java, but that was in part because Java was so hot at the moment, so marketing had something to do with the decision to name it JavaScript.
- JxLS-cpgbe0 6y ago
  Why "script" though? Aren't Java and JavaScript both script(ing languages)? Why not call it e-Java or Java XYZ or something?
  - Scarblac 6y ago
    I've never seen Java called a scripting language before, actually.
  - calibas 6y ago
    This is all semantics, but the idea was that Java is a "real" language for serious use and JavaScript is a "script" that's much easier to use and doesn't involve all the complications of a "real" programming language. It was only kind of true back then, and not even remotely true now. There really isn't a solid line you can draw between a "script" and a "programming language". To me, something like Python is right in between.
    - mlyle 6y ago
      To me, if something acts logically like it is run from top to bottom, it's a scripting language. Python scripts and JavaScript are in this category; Java isn't. Additionally, explicit compilation/linking/assembly shouldn't be required for a scripting language, even if the interpreter does stuff kind of like this behind the scenes for performance.
      - zepto 6y ago
        That makes Ocaml and Haskel into scripting languages.

by astura 6y ago

blakesterz 6y ago

Interesting! "JavaScript would have been the ideal name because that’s what everyone called it and that’s what the books call it. Microsoft couldn’t get a license from Sun so they called their implementation JScript. So ECMA wanted to call it something and they couldn’t get anybody to donate or they couldn’t get everybody to agree to a donation of the trademark, so they ended up inventing ECMAScript, which sounds a little like a skin disease. Nobody really wants it. "

dr-detroit 6y ago

Not supposed to talk about Bill Joy hes not a gazillionaire eCeleb

derefr 6y ago

So, basically, JavaScript was originally annointed to serve the function within the JVM ecosystem, that ended up being served by Groovy? Why didn’t that happen? And why did it take so long before we got Groovy instead, if Sun wanted was imagining something like it way back in 1995?

alisonkisk 6y ago
Sun had some great people and some good ideas and products, but as a coherent business it was a rolling train wreck.
- hutzlibu 6y ago
  Which why they sadly ended up digested by Oracle.
  - pjmlp 6y ago
    Only after Google sent a couple of torpedoes and then went as if it wasn't their business.
    - hutzlibu 6y ago
      What torpedoes do you mean?
      - pjmlp 6y ago
        Android and ripping Sun off. Then they were hoping that no one would buy them, not even themselves cared to own Java after their trick. So now they push Kotlin, while researching Fuchsia, and keep a bunch of lawyers quite happy.
        hutzlibu 6y ago
        So implementing and pushing Java in Android was a torpedo against Sun? Interesting logic.
        pjmlp 6y ago
        Android Java is not Java, and yes when I take someone's product and don't pay what the license specifies, while introducing an incomplete implementation, that is 100% ripping off. Thankfully we are going to have that settled in the near future, and then Android folks can party all night long with their Kotlin implementation and rename ART into KVM.

calibas 6y ago

I think if you combined the two "different" answers to why it's named JavaScript, you get the truth. Yes, it was promoted as a companion scripting language for Java, but that was in part because Java was so hot at the moment, so marketing had something to do with the decision to name it JavaScript.

JxLS-cpgbe0 6y ago
Why "script" though? Aren't Java and JavaScript both script(ing languages)? Why not call it e-Java or Java XYZ or something?
- Scarblac 6y ago
  I've never seen Java called a scripting language before, actually.
- calibas 6y ago
  This is all semantics, but the idea was that Java is a "real" language for serious use and JavaScript is a "script" that's much easier to use and doesn't involve all the complications of a "real" programming language. It was only kind of true back then, and not even remotely true now. There really isn't a solid line you can draw between a "script" and a "programming language". To me, something like Python is right in between.
  - mlyle 6y ago
    To me, if something acts logically like it is run from top to bottom, it's a scripting language. Python scripts and JavaScript are in this category; Java isn't. Additionally, explicit compilation/linking/assembly shouldn't be required for a scripting language, even if the interpreter does stuff kind of like this behind the scenes for performance.
    - zepto 6y ago
      That makes Ocaml and Haskel into scripting languages.