JavaScript Versions
JavaScript was invented by Brendan Eich in 1995, and became an ECMA standard in 1997 (ECMA-262).
ECMAScript is the official name of the language.
From 2015 ECMAScript is named by year (ECMAScript 2015).
ECMAScript Editions
| Ver | Official Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ECMAScript 1 (1997) | First Edition. |
| 2 | ECMAScript 2 (1998) | Editorial changes only. |
| 3 | ECMAScript 3 (1999) | Added Regular Expressions. Added try/catch. |
| 4 | ECMAScript 4 | Never released. |
| 5 | ECMAScript 5 (2009) Read More at JS Verion 5 |
Added "strict mode". Added JSON support. Added String.trim(). Added Array.isArray(). Added Array Iteration Methods. |
| 5.1 | ECMAScript 5.1 (2011) | Editorial changes. |
| 6 | ECMAScript 2015 Read More at JS Verion 6 |
Added let and const. Added default parameter values. Added Array.find(). Added Array.findIndex(). |
| 7 | ECMAScript 2016 | Added exponential operator (**). Added Array.prototype.includes. |
| 8 | ECMAScript 2017 | Added string padding. Added new Object properties. Added Async functions. Added Shared Memory. |
| 9 | ECMAScript 2018 |
Added rest / spread properties. Added Asynchronous iteration. Added Promise.finally(). Additions to RegExp. |
ECMAScript is often abbreviated to ES.
Browser Support
ECMAScript 1-3 is fully supported in all browsers.
ECMAScript 4 does not exist.
ECMAScript 5.1 is fully supported in all modern browsers*.
ECMAScript 2015 is partially supported in most browsers.
ECMAScript 2016 is partially supported in some browsers.
ECMAScript 2017 is poorly supported.
* Modern browsers are:
Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Opera, Safari, and Internet Explorer from version 10.
Internet Explorer 9 does not support ECMAScript 5 "use strict".
JavaScript / ECMAScript
JavaScript was developed for Netscape.
The first browser to run JavaScript was Netscape 2.
After Netscape the Mozilla foundation continued to develop JavaScript for the Firefox browser.
JavaScript version numbers run from 1.0 to 1.8.5.
(1.8.5 is identical to ECMAScript 5)
ECMAScript was developed by ECMA International after the organization adopted JavaScript.
The first edition of ECMAScript was released in 1997.
This list compares the version numbers of the different products:
| Year | JavaScript | ECMA | Browser |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | 1.0 | Netscape 2 | |
| 1997 | ECMAScript 1 | IE 4 | |
| 1998 | 1.3 | Netscape 4 | |
| 1999 | ECMAScript 2 | IE 5 | |
| 2000 | ECMAScript 3 | IE 5.5 | |
| 2000 | 1.5 | Netscape 6 | |
| 2000 | 1.5 | Firefox 1 | |
| 2011 | ECMAScript 5 | IE 9 (Except "use strict") | |
| 2011 | 1.8.5 | Firefox 4 (Except leading zeroes in parseInt) | |
| 2012 | IE 10 | ||
| 2012 | Chrome 23 | ||
| 2012 | Safari 6 | ||
| 2013 | Firefox 21 | ||
| 2013 | Opera 15 | ||
| 2015 | ECMAScript 2015 | Partially Supported in all Browser |
Netscape 2 was the first browser to use JavaScript.
Internet Explorer 4 was the first browser to support ECMAScript 1.
Internet Explorer 5 was the first browser to support ECMAScript 2.
Internet Explorer 5.5 was the first browser to support ECMAScript 3.
Chrome 23, IE 10, and Safari 6 were the first browsers to fully support ECMAScript 5.
Full support for ECMAScript 5 is implemented in:
| Chrome 23 | IE10 / Edge | Firefox 21 | Safari 6 | Opera 15 |
| Sep 2012 | Sep 2012 | Apr 2013 | Jul 2012 | Jul 2013 |
