Java and Javascript are not the same
If you want to anger a developer, you would be hard-pressed to find a better way than to tell him that Java and Javascript are the same.
As Web Developer Jeremy Keith pointed out back in 2009 Java is to JavaScript as ham is to hamster. Other than having similarly sounding names, these languages don’t have much in common.
To keep a long story short, back in 1995, Java was the new hot programming language on the block. Netscape hoped to ride that wave of popularity and gave their new language a similarly sounding name (allegedly). This lead to Java and Javascript being confused to this day.
Java was developed by Sun Microsystems and released in 1995. It is a general purpose programming language for which one of the main selling points is that it runs on pretty much every platform thanks to it being run in its own virtual machine (the Java Virtual Machine, or JVM). It is used extensively in the corporate world and is also used to build native Android applications.
Javascript was initially developed to run in web browsers and was used to add some limited functionality to the static web pages. It was used and abused and got quite a bad reputation because of it. As our browsers got better, and our websites became web apps, the language evolved too. Javascript escaped the confines of the browser and now runs on servers and IOT devices. What was once considered a toy is now one the most popular programming languages.
With this knowledge under your belt, you’ll be safer navigating the sometimes troubled waters of speaking with developers.
If you want more technical jargon explained to you in a friendly way, don’t hesitate to check our other posts:
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