The Stop Microsoft Corp bandwaggon is gathering pace, and Netscape Communications Corp and Sun Microsystems Inc have pooled their resources to create JavaScript, which combines Sun’s Java and Netscape’s LiveScript. It will be integrated in Netscape servers and the Navigator 2.0 browser by next quarter, the partners say. Sun’s Java will continue to be used to create applets, but JavaScript, reportedly code-named Mocha, will enable Web page authors and applications developers to link back-end systems with Java applets running under Netscape’s Web server software. The effort has won the backing of an impressive array of industry heavyweights, 28 all told, including Hewlett-Packard Co, AT&T Corp, Apple Computer Inc, Oracle Corp, Novell Inc, Toshiba Corp, IBM Corp, Intel Corp, Silicon Graphics Inc, Sybase Inc, Informix Software Inc and Digital Equipment Corp, to step forward and announce their support. Sybase Inc is working to support JavaScript in its development tools so that users can dynamically create Web pages from data stored in Sybase databases. While Java is used by programmers to create new objects and applets, JavaScript is designed for use by HyperText Mark-up Language page authors and enterprise application developers to script the behaviour of objects running on either the client or the server, and is described as analogous to Visual Basic in that it can be used by people with little or no programming experience to build complex applications. Sun has licensed Java to Borland International Inc, Macromedia Inc, Mitsubishi Electric Corp, Netscape, Oracle, Silicon Graphics, Spyglass Inc and Toshiba.
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