Traditional (and expensive) desktop applications
such as word processors, calendars, and e-mail are being replicated in cheaper (and
often easier-to-use) Web-based versions such as Writely, 30 Boxes, and Google Mail.
Over the course of 10 years, the popularity of JavaScript has increased and waned; fortunately,
it is now making its triumphant return. But why now? One word: ubiquity (???the state of
being everywhere at once???). The goal of most developers has been to have the work they produce
be available and accessible to everyone. HTML accomplished this goal early on. Much
of the format matured before the Internet really took off in the late 1990s. The HTML you produced
for one browser would appear mostly the same in all other browsers: Mac, PC, or Linux.
JavaScript was still quite immature, however. Its capability to interact with the HTML document
was inconsistent across browsers. Its two main facilitators, Netscape and Internet
Explorer (IE), implemented very different approaches, which meant that two completely different
implementations were required to complete the same task. People often tried to create
helper scripts, or sometimes even full-blown JavaScript libraries, to bridge the gap. Keep in
mind that JavaScript libraries weren??™t that popular back in the day. Most saw them as bloated
and unnecessary to achieve what they needed. The libraries certainly eased development, but
they were large in comparison with the problems people were trying to solve with JavaScript.
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