Microsoft Corp has announced plans to deliver binary and source reference implementations of the scripting engines for Visual Basic, Scripting Edition and JScript, the Microsoft implementation of JavaScript. Both technologies will be licensed at no cost to interested parties, and can be implemented for any operating system or hardware system. The support for Visual Basic Script and the JavaScript language in Microsoft Internet Explorer version 3.0 should enable Internet developers to create interactive Web sites using either scripting language. By making these scripting engines available for free, Microsoft hopes to win support from other browser and application vendors. Both Visual Basic Script and JScript are integrated with Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 using the ActiveX Scripting interface. Developers can script Java Applets using the JavaScript language. The ActiveX Scripting interface enables developers to co-ordinate the interaction of a variety of software components on the Internet, including Java Applets and ActiveX Controls written in other languages, using any scripting language that supports this interface.
