From the course: Learning ECMAScript 6+ (ES6+)

What is ECMAScript? - JavaScript Tutorial

From the course: Learning ECMAScript 6+ (ES6+)

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What is ECMAScript?

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- [Instructor] A discussion of what ECMAScript is should start with a quick recap of the history of ECMAScript in general. In 1995, JavaScript was created by Brendon Eich at Netscape, and then was adopted by Microsoft as JScript. With different versions of a language for different browsers, there was soon a need to standardize the language. Enter the ECMA, E-C-M-A, or the European Computer Manufacturers Association is the governing body that provides the ECMAScript specifications for JavaScript browser implementations, and many other computer governance projects. The people who are on the ECMAScript committee work at companies that make browsers, companies that use a lot of JavaScript, or are JavaScript community members. Shortly after its foundation, the ECMAScript 1 spec was released in 1997. Following this, ECMAScript 2 and ECMAScript 3 came out really quickly. ECMAScript 4 was a hotly contested one. It was argued about, and then really never came out. So this was eclipsed by ECMAScript 5 in 2009. This one gave us array methods that we rely on like for each, map, and filter. The last kind of huge release of features was an official spec for ECMAScript 6, sometimes known as ECMAScript 2015. Since then, it's been a little different. Instead of numbered versions, features come out by year. So every single year we'll see new features being released, and those are attached to the year. It's all just JavaScript though, and every time new things come out, it doesn't change what's already part of JavaScript, it just gives us as developers more tools to work with.

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