JS History

JavaScript / ECMAScript

JavaScript was created by Brendan Eich in 1995 for Netscape 2 and became the ECMA-262 standard in 1997.

After Netscape handed JavaScript over to ECMA, the Mozilla Foundation continued its development for the Firefox browser, with their latest version being 1.8.5 (equivalent to ES5).

Internet Explorer (IE4) was the first browser to support ECMA-262 Edition 1 (ES1).

Year	ECMA	Browser
1995		JavaScript was created by Brendan Eich.
1996		Netscape 2 was released with JavaScript 1.0.
1997		JavaScript was standardized as ECMA-262.
1997	ES1	ECMAScript 1 was released.
1997	ES1	Internet Explorer 4 was the first browser to support ES1.
1998	ES2	ECMAScript 2 was published.
1998		Netscape 4.2 was released with JavaScript 1.3.
1999	ES2	Internet Explorer 5 was the first browser to support ES2.
1999	ES3	ECMAScript 3 was officially released.
2000	ES3	Internet Explorer 5.5 was the first browser to support ES3.
2000		Netscape 6.2 was released with JavaScript 1.5.
2000		Firefox 1 was released with JavaScript 1.5.
2008	ES4	ECMAScript 4 was abandoned.
2009	ES5	ECMAScript 5 was introduced.
2011	ES5	Internet Explorer 9 was the first browser to support ES5.
2011	ES5	Firefox 4 was released with JavaScript 1.8.5.
2012	ES5	Safari 6 provided full support for ES5.
2012	ES5	Internet Explorer 10 provided full support for ES5.
2012	ES5	Chrome 23 provided full support for ES5.
2013	ES5	Firefox 21 provided full support for ES5.
2013	ES5	Opera 15 provided full support for ES5.
2014	ES5	Full support for ES5 was introduced in all major browsers.
2015	ES6	ECMAScript 6 was released.
2016	ES6	Chrome 51 provided full support for ES6.
2016	ES6	Opera 38 provided full support for ES6.
2016	ES6	Safari 10 provided full support for ES6.
2017	ES6	Firefox 54 provided full support for ES6.
2017	ES6	Edge 15 provided full support for ES6.
2018	ES6	Full support for ES6 was introduced across all major browsers.

Note:

Internet Explorer 9 did not support the ES5 “use strict” directive.
Internet Explorer 11 does not support ES6.

The ECMA Technical Committee 39

In 1996, Netscape and Brendan Eich brought JavaScript to the ECMA International standards organization, leading to the formation of a technical committee (TC39) to develop the language. ECMA-262 Edition 1 was released in June 1997.

From ES4 to ES6

When the TC39 committee met in Oslo in 2008 to discuss ECMAScript 4, they were split into two distinct camps:

The ECMAScript 3.1 Camp: Led by Microsoft and Yahoo, this group wanted a smaller, incremental upgrade from ES3.
The ECMAScript 4 Camp: Supported by Adobe, Mozilla, Opera, and Google, this group pushed for a major overhaul with ES4.

On August 13, 2008, Brendan Eich sent an email stating:

“It’s no secret that the JavaScript standards body, Ecma’s Technical Committee 39, has been divided for over a year, with some members favoring ES4, a major fourth edition of ECMA-262, while others supported ES3.1, based on the existing ECMA-262 Edition 3 (ES3) specification. Now, I’m happy to report that the split is over.”

The solution was to find common ground:

ECMAScript 4 was renamed ES5.
ES5 became an incremental upgrade to ECMAScript 3.
Features from ECMAScript 4 were to be included in future versions.
TC39 planned a new major release, larger in scope than ES5 — this became ES6, codenamed “Harmony” (perhaps as a nod to the resolution of the split).

ES5 was a major success, released in 2009, and by July 2013, all major browsers, including Internet Explorer, were fully compliant.

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ES6 was also a major success. Released in 2015, it achieved full compliance across all major browsers by March 2017.

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