Editing JavaScript (section)

=== Growth and standardization ===
{{pic|Logo of TC39.svg|Logo of Technical Committee 39 ("TC39"), the committee of [[Ecma International]] that is responsible for maintaining the standard|150px}}
During the period of [[Internet Explorer]] dominance in the early 2000s, client-side scripting was stagnant. This started to change in 2004, when the successor of Netscape, [[Mozilla]], released the [[Firefox]] browser. Firefox was well received by many, taking significant market share from Internet Explorer.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4508897.stm |title=The assault on software giant Microsoft |last=Weber |first=Tim |date=May 9, 2005 |work=[[BBC News]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170925233936/https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4508897.stm |archive-date=September 25, 2017}}</ref>

In 2005, Mozilla joined ECMA International, and work started on the [[ECMAScript for XML]] (E4X) standard. This led to Mozilla working jointly with [[Macromedia]] (later acquired by [[Adobe Systems]]), who were implementing E4X in their ActionScript 3 language, which was based on an ECMAScript 4 draft. The goal became standardizing ActionScript 3 as the new ECMAScript 4. To this end, Adobe Systems released the [[Tamarin (software)|Tamarin]] implementation as an [[Open-source model|open source]] project. However, Tamarin and ActionScript 3 were too different from established client-side scripting, and without cooperation from Microsoft, ECMAScript 4 never reached fruition.

Meanwhile, very important developments were occurring in open-source communities not affiliated with ECMA work. In 2005, [[Jesse James Garrett]] released a white paper in which he coined the term [[Ajax (programming)|Ajax]] and described a set of technologies, of which JavaScript was the backbone, to create [[web application]]s where data can be loaded in the background, avoiding the need for full page reloads. This sparked a renaissance period of JavaScript, spearheaded by open-source libraries and the communities that formed around them. Many new libraries were created, including [[jQuery]], [[Prototype JavaScript Framework|Prototype]], [[Dojo Toolkit]], and [[MooTools]].

[[Google]] debuted its [[Google Chrome|Chrome]] browser in 2008, with the [[V8 (JavaScript engine)|V8]] JavaScript engine that was faster than its competition.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,687738/Big-browser-comparison-test-Internet-Explorer-vs-Firefox-Opera-Safari-and-Chrome-Update-Firefox-35-Final/Practice/|title=Big browser comparison test: Internet Explorer vs. Firefox, Opera, Safari and Chrome|work=PC Games Hardware|date=3 July 2009|publisher=Computec Media AG|access-date=June 28, 2010|archive-date=May 2, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120502043027/http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,687738/Big-browser-comparison-test-Internet-Explorer-vs-Firefox-Opera-Safari-and-Chrome-Update-Firefox-35-Final/Practice/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://lifehacker.com/lifehacker-speed-tests-safari-4-chrome-2-and-more-5286869 | title=Lifehacker Speed Tests: Safari 4, Chrome 2 | first=Kevin | last=Purdy | work=[[Lifehacker]] | date=June 11, 2009 | access-date=May 8, 2021 | archive-date=April 14, 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414095403/https://lifehacker.com/lifehacker-speed-tests-safari-4-chrome-2-and-more-5286869 | url-status=live }}</ref> The key innovation was [[just-in-time compilation]] (JIT),<ref>{{cite web|url=https://brendaneich.com/2008/08/tracemonkey-javascript-lightspeed/|title=TraceMonkey: JavaScript Lightspeed, Brendan Eich's Blog|access-date=July 22, 2020|archive-date=December 4, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151204091540/https://brendaneich.com/2008/08/tracemonkey-javascript-lightspeed/|url-status=live}}</ref> so other browser vendors needed to overhaul their engines for JIT.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Mozilla asks, 'Are we fast yet?' |url=https://www.wired.com/2010/09/mozilla-asks-are-we-fast-yet/ |magazine=Wired |access-date=January 18, 2019 |archive-date=June 22, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180622213244/https://www.wired.com/2010/09/mozilla-asks-are-we-fast-yet/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

In July 2008, these disparate parties came together for a conference in [[Oslo]]. This led to the eventual agreement in early 2009 to combine all relevant work and drive the language forward. The result was the ECMAScript 5 standard, released in December 2009.