ECMAScript
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ECMAScript, in simple terms, is the greatest common subset of JavaScript and JScript. It is a scripting programming language created to capture the common core language elements of both languages. The Language Specification is published by the ECMA International. Development of the standard began in 1996. It has now been accepted as ISO standard 16262.
The standard is now the fourth edition, known as E4X (ECMAScript for XML), which standardizes the syntax and semantics of a general-purpose, cross-platform, vendor-neutral set of programming language extensions adding native XML support in ECMAScript.
Dialects of ECMAScript
ECMAScript is supported in many applications, especially web browsers. The binding with DOM is added for manipulating the document.
| Application | Dialect | Latest dialect version | Corresponding ECMAScript revision |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mozilla and its derivatives | JavaScript | 1.5 | ECMA-262, revision 3 1 |
| Internet Explorer | JScript | 5.6 | ECMA-262, revision 3 |
| Opera | ECMAScript, with extensions to both JavaScript and JScript | ? | ECMA-262, revision 3 |
| Konqueror and its derivatives | JavaScript | ? | ECMA-262 |
| Microsoft .NET | JScript .NET | ? | ECMA-357, revision 4 |
| Macromedia Flash | ActionScript | 2 | ECMA-357, revision 4 |
| Adobe Acrobat | JavaScript | 1.5 | ECMA-262, revision 3 |
| OpenLaszlo Server | JavaScript | ? | ECMA-262, revision 3 2 |
Note (1): The latest beta version of Mozilla (1.8 Beta 1) has partial support of E4X [1] (http://www.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla1.8b1/README.html).
Note (2): As stated by OpenLaszlo, it partially implements revision 3 of ECMA-262 [2] (http://www.laszlosystems.com/lps/docs/lzx-developers-guide/language-preliminaries.html)
The Mozilla implementations, (SpiderMonkey in the C programming language and Rhino in the Java programming language), are used in several third-party programs, including Konfabulator and the Macintosh system-level scripting language JavaScript OSA.
External links
- ECMAScript Language Specification
- Standard ECMA-262 ECMAScript Language Specification 3rd edition (December 1999) (http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-262.htm)
- Standard ECMA-290 ECMAScript Components Specification (June 1999) (http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-290.htm)
- Standard ECMA-327 ECMAScript 3rd Edition Compact Profile (June 2001) (http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-327.htm)
- Standard ECMA-357 ECMAScript for XML (E4X) Specification (June 2004) (http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-357.htm)
- FESI - Free ECMAScript Interpreter (http://www.lugrin.ch/fesi/)es:ECMAScript