What is JavaScript?
In just ten days, a Netscape, Inc. developer named Brendan Eich created a coding language that told computers to interact with users when they input information. “LiveScript” was the name given to this language, and it was integrated directly into Navigator.
In the same period, Java was gaining popularity. Seeing an opportunity, Netscape renamed their language JavaScript. JavaScript significantly contributed to the Internet’s “early days.”
A lightweight programming language, JavaScript, is used to make web pages interactive by enabling complex features. Also known as a browser’s language, it can also add dynamic text into HTML. A web page will probably include JavaScript whenever it displays dynamic content updates, zoom in and out on an image, interactive maps, playing audio and video on a web page, etc.
What is Java?
James Gosling invented Java, now owned by Oracle, at Sun Microsystems. Java was first released in 1995 after four years of development.
The Java programming language is an object-oriented, network-centric language with a powerful virtual machine platform that allows you to compile your programs to run on virtually any platform.
Almost every application that makes our lives easier today is based on Java, and it’s thanks to Java, we can make our internet experience so rich. The Java programming language is 25 years old today, and several new versions of it have been released during this period.
The Difference between Java and JavaScript
There is no similarity or relationship between JavaScript and Java. Despite the similarity of their syntax and their widespread use in both client-side and server-side Web applications, both languages are written, assembled, and executed differently. Each has its own and extremely different set of capabilities.
The primary differences include:
- Java has many uses, including working with big data, developing Android apps, desktop and web enterprise applications. On the other hand, JavaScript is mainly used to enhance the interactivity of web pages. JavaScript can create HTML animation.
- The Java programming language is strongly typed and requires variable declaration before use, while JavaScript is weakly typed, having more flexible syntax and rules.
- Additionally, there are differences in the types of language. JavaScript is a scripting language based on objects, while Java is an object-oriented programming (OOP) language.
- Since all objects of Java are based on classes, it is impossible to write Java code without creating a class, as opposed to JavaScript Objects which are prototype-based.
- In Java, program files are preceded by “.Java,” and source code is converted into bytecode, run by JVM (Java Virtual Machine). In contrast, JavaScript files are “.js” extension files and are interpreted instead of compiled. Each browser contains a Javascript interpreter to execute JS code.
- Java is a standalone language, but JavaScript is embedded in web pages and is integrated with HTML content.
- The concurrency paradigm in Java is a thread-based one, whereas, in Javascript, it is event-based.
- There are different plug-ins for each language. Code in JavaScript runs only in the browser, while Java output creates applications that run on virtual machines or in the browser.
