Contrary to what you might think, scripting languages have a long history on the i, and a wide variety of options exist on the platform. This article compares and contrasts those options.

Written by Joe Pluta

What's a scripting language? Within the context of this discussion, a scripting language is a programming tool that allows the developer to craft dynamic Web pages, especially pages using business data. Even more specifically, we're talking about server-side scripting languages: languages that run on the host to generate Web pages. This is an important distinction, because only server-side languages depend on the host operating system; client-side scripting runs in the browser and therefore is independent of the host. So this article is going to examine the various types of server-side scripting languages available for the IBM i.

Let's explore exactly what JavaScript is (and is not).

Written by Mike Faust

Editor's Note: This article is an excerpt from the MC Press book JavaScript for the Business Developer.

The JavaScript language was developed by a Netscape programmer named Brendan Eich. Originally called LiveScript, it was introduced with Netscape Navigator version 2.0 in September 1995. In December of that year, LiveScript was renamed JavaScript because of the scripting language's similarity in structure to Java. In July of 1996, Microsoft introduced its port of JavaScript (called Jscript) as a component of Internet Explorer 3.0. The Netscape and Microsoft implementations of JavaScript, even today, have significant differences in their object models. (You'll learn about these differences a little later in this chapter.) Today, JavaScript offers a robust client-side language for creating dynamic and vibrant browser-based applications.