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posted by martyb on Tuesday February 25 2020, @01:34AM   Printer-friendly
from the stone-knives-and-bearskins dept.

Here's what people in tech had to say about JavaScript when it debuted in 1995

Time and time again JavaScript is crowned the most popular programming language in the World. Whether you agree with that or not, one thing's for sure: It's come a long way since its debut back in 1995.

To mark the release of JavaScript a joint press release was issued from Netscape and Sun Microsystems on December 4, 1995.

"Programmers have been overwhelmingly enthusiastic about Java because it was designed from the ground up for the Internet. JavaScript is a natural fit, since it's also designed for the Internet and Unicode-based worldwide use," said Bill Joy, co-founder and vice president of research at Sun. "JavaScript will be the most effective method to connect HTML-based content to Java applets."

[ . . . and some testimonials . . .]

"SCO looks forward to supporting the JavaScript language on both our OpenServer and UnixWare product lines. JavaScript will enable developers to create substantially more stimulating and interactive web-based applications than ever before, giving them the edge they need to compete for the attention of the increasingly sophisticated population of Internet users."
        Richard Treadway
        Vice President, Layered Products
        SCO

It claimed that JavaScript would be an "easy-to-use" scripting language designed for "creating live online applications".

The press release then went on to share praise from then industry bigwigs.

Here's what members of the tech industry had to say about little old JavaScript back in 1995. Some of the companies here are still going, others....not so much.

"JavaScript brings the power of rapid multimedia application development with cross-platform mobility at both the operating system and architecture level. We are pleased to integrate this powerful language into our Developer's Program."

        Mike Connors, President
        America Online Technologies

        "JavaScript will allow us to easily create personalized applets for the Excite service. These applets, combined with the rich functionality of the Excite service, will integrate more fully into the users experience as they explore and navigate the Internet."

        Graham Spencer, Chief Technology Officer
        Architext Software

JavaScript is popular. Also, I would observe, based on the number of participants, that death and taxes are extremely popular!


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by fustakrakich on Tuesday February 25 2020, @01:45AM (21 children)

    by fustakrakich (6150) on Tuesday February 25 2020, @01:45AM (#962145) Journal

    VHS is more popular than Beta.

    Milli Vanilli won a *Best New Artist* grammy.

    Javascript? It's only natural

    --
    La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
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  • (Score: 4, Funny) by takyon on Tuesday February 25 2020, @02:14AM

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Tuesday February 25 2020, @02:14AM (#962157) Journal

    JavaScript is the most useful programming language ever created. You can thank Brendan Eich for that by using the Brave web browser today [brave.com].

    --
    [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Grishnakh on Tuesday February 25 2020, @02:36AM (19 children)

    by Grishnakh (2831) on Tuesday February 25 2020, @02:36AM (#962166)

    VHS is more popular than Beta.

    That was for very good reason. Beta lost (among consumers) for the same reason Firewire lost to USB: it was too expensive, because the one company that owned it insisted on charging ridiculous licensing fees for it, while the competing standard didn't have that impediment.

    On top of that, Beta tapes had runtimes that were too short; most movies required two tapes. No one wants to change tapes in the middle of a movie. VHS didn't have this problem.

    The only thing Beta was really better at was picture quality, but the sacrifices it made for that were unacceptable for the movie-viewing public.

    Milli Vanilli won a *Best New Artist* grammy.

    I'm sure if you looked at the history of that award for the last 20 years or so, pretty much all the best new artists have been talentless people who record companies groomed to be good performers as long as they're either lip-syncing or singing through Autotune. Pop music has been garbage for a long time.

    • (Score: 5, Funny) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday February 25 2020, @02:44AM (7 children)

      by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Tuesday February 25 2020, @02:44AM (#962167)

      Pop music has been garbage for a long time.

      That is true, and not because I'm old.

      • (Score: 4, Funny) by anubi on Tuesday February 25 2020, @04:59AM (5 children)

        by anubi (2828) on Tuesday February 25 2020, @04:59AM (#962232) Journal

        I'm old, and feel the same way.

        To me, damn near all this new "industrial" and "trance" sounds like either a massive traffic jam, or they threw their instruments in a washing machine.

        Yup. Too damm old. But then, I no longer like much of the music I had as a kid either. And, God Forbid! I actually caught myself listening to Lawrence Well, and actually liking it!

        So, I modded you funny, but I understand.

        --
        "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
        • (Score: 3, Funny) by driverless on Tuesday February 25 2020, @10:16AM

          by driverless (4770) on Tuesday February 25 2020, @10:16AM (#962302)

          all this new "industrial" and "trance" sounds like either a massive traffic jam, or they threw their instruments in a washing machine.

          Naah, you're thinking of Morbid Angel, which is an above-ground nuclear weapons test recorded live in Hell.

        • (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday February 25 2020, @06:24PM (2 children)

          by DeathMonkey (1380) on Tuesday February 25 2020, @06:24PM (#962465) Journal

          To me, damn near all this new "industrial" and "trance" sounds like either a massive traffic jam, or they threw their instruments in a washing machine.

          The industrial and trance music that was all the new hotness in 1994?

          • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 25 2020, @09:16PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 25 2020, @09:16PM (#962551)

            No, that stuff all sounded like a giant *whoosh* overhead ...

          • (Score: 4, Insightful) by anubi on Tuesday February 25 2020, @09:17PM

            by anubi (2828) on Tuesday February 25 2020, @09:17PM (#962553) Journal

            I said I am old. What's a few more years?

            At my age, I think in decades. So most things that concern me stay in a comprehensible form. Even annual things are as annoying as I used to torment Dad in the car, going to see Grandma...a constant stream of "Daddy, are we there yet?". Back then, even a minute seemed like forever, especially one spent in Church wearing an uncomfortable hot suit with a kids metabolism.

            At least at my age, I can usually speak my piece without getting a whoopping for it. Now I'm just considered an old goat blowing off steam and no one pays it much mind.

            --
            "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
        • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday February 25 2020, @07:59PM

          by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Tuesday February 25 2020, @07:59PM (#962518)

          I was thinking more of the various bland pop princesses that seem to infest the airwaves now that the record companies have consolidated the industry, and stopped developing proper talent.

          You know them, they all sound the same, and have substituted interesting music for rolling out the same song again and again.

          I think they call music "product" now.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 25 2020, @06:28PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 25 2020, @06:28PM (#962468)

        Ok, Boomer.

    • (Score: 4, Interesting) by driverless on Tuesday February 25 2020, @03:02AM (4 children)

      by driverless (4770) on Tuesday February 25 2020, @03:02AM (#962173)

      Two more things with beta, the Sony VCRs didn't have a built-in clock so they were useless for time-shifting, and by the time VCRs became popular outside the US where NTSC meant both beta and VHS looked bad, VHS had become S-VHS which was fine with PAL.

      So a beta VCR was unable to do the two things people wanted a VCR for, you couldn't time-shift because there was no clock and you couldn't play back prerecorded movies without having to get up at some point to swap tapes. It lost for very good reasons.

      • (Score: 5, Funny) by ze on Tuesday February 25 2020, @04:37AM (1 child)

        by ze (8197) on Tuesday February 25 2020, @04:37AM (#962229)

        Yeah, fuck beta! wait...

        • (Score: 3, Insightful) by driverless on Tuesday February 25 2020, @10:14AM

          by driverless (4770) on Tuesday February 25 2020, @10:14AM (#962301)

          Naah, just fuck Sony.

      • (Score: 2) by kazzie on Wednesday February 26 2020, @09:23AM (1 child)

        by kazzie (5309) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 26 2020, @09:23AM (#962778)

        A lot of those useability extras (and price reductions) were a result of the various VHS licensees competing among themselves for customers. Beta machines were only made by Sony, so if Sony didn't decide to offer it, you couldn't get it in a Beta machine.

        • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Grishnakh on Thursday February 27 2020, @03:02AM

          by Grishnakh (2831) on Thursday February 27 2020, @03:02AM (#963294)

          >A lot of those useability extras (and price reductions) were a result of the various VHS licensees competing among themselves for customers. Beta machines were only made by Sony, so if Sony didn't decide to offer it, you couldn't get it in a Beta machine.

          Reminds me a lot of Apple.

    • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday February 25 2020, @03:07AM (1 child)

      by fustakrakich (6150) on Tuesday February 25 2020, @03:07AM (#962176) Journal

      Beta lost (among consumers) for the same reason Firewire lost to USB

      Yeah, not a lot of effort was put into the consumer market beyond replacing the super 8 cameras and projectors. In broadcast they ruled the world.

      Pop music has been garbage for a long time.

      It's not acoustic. Ever since the instruments were electrified the whole scene went to hell. If it weren't for that, we'd still be listening to good jazz and blues, and Elvis would still be alive, singing gospel music.

      --
      La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 25 2020, @09:09AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 25 2020, @09:09AM (#962293)

        Electrification is one thing, but the introduction of the likes of Fruityloops (FL Studio these days apparently) meant that you didn't need musicians as much to belt out the backing track for whatever artist you wanted to put on stage.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 25 2020, @08:58AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 25 2020, @08:58AM (#962292)

      The no need to flip the tape over is likely the major factor.

      One could see the same with videodisc, where you have to handle a LP sized optical disc half way through the movie in other to watch it all. DVD was an instant hit by comparison as it didn't need any manual interaction mid-play, and it also didn't need to be rewinded like a VHS (oh, and you could not fit a whole TV series season in the physical shelf space of a single VHS).

      It is tragicomic to watch the movie industry walk into the same pitfalls as the music industry did almost a decade beforehand, as you can see much the same transition from VHS to DVD to video files as there was with cassette tapes to CD to music files.

      • (Score: 2) by kazzie on Wednesday February 26 2020, @09:26AM

        by kazzie (5309) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 26 2020, @09:26AM (#962779)

        There were double-sided (flip-over) DVDs in the days before dual-layer discs. In my experience, they were more of a thing in North America than Europe.

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by EvilSS on Tuesday February 25 2020, @02:03PM

      by EvilSS (1456) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday February 25 2020, @02:03PM (#962354)

      Pop music has been garbage for a long time.

      Pop music has always been garbage. It's the music category equivalent of McDonald's.

    • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday February 25 2020, @07:30PM

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday February 25 2020, @07:30PM (#962508) Journal

      Linux is a many splendored thing.

      Linux lifts us up where we belong.

      All you need is Linux.

      --
      People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.