Answers
to Questions about...
Web
Browsers
As long as rugged individualism conflicts with community spirit, there
won't be a satisfactory answer to this question -- or any other concerning
multiple, competing "standards." That's an interesting
bit of philosophy, you say, but it doesn't help much? Here are some
facts to help you make a decision.
JavaScript is a Netscape trademark and, despite the open availability
of the API, is proprietary to that company's browsers. JScript
is Microsoft's implementation of JavaScript for the Internet Explorer
line. JScript 1.0 (implemented in IE 3.x) and JavaScript 1.0 are roughly
equivalent (with exceptions documented in books like Mark Stone's How
to Program Microsoft JScript; cf. C8).
Starting with v3.x of Navigator, Netscape enhanced JavaScript
with features not available in any other browser. Nice features ...
if you don't mind a little lock-in. The following excerpts from newsgroup
comp.lang.javascript
make the same points with more, er, esprit de corps:
Posted 26 November, 1996
"For as long
as IE exists, you can't write a piece of code worth writing and make
it browser-independent. Unless MS actually gets an IQ or two and gets
JavaScript right".rant()
JScript doesn't
support the image array. Which means that your script is NS3.0 only.
which is a Major bummer, esp with [dynamic graphics] in your application.
So, only thing you can do is test to make sure
navigator.appName
= "Netscape" and navigator.appVerson.substring(0,1) = 3
before you run your
stuff. G'Luck.
Later that day...
For as long as Netscape
does not implement an "open" JavaScript you can't write a
piece of code browser independent. I have to say that writing JavaScript
1.0 in IE 3.0 is a joy compared to writing JavaScript 1.0 in Netscape
2.x. If you use Netscape 3.0 and JavaScript 1.1, your code will run
nowhere else.
[Related topics:
ECMAScript,
Browser Incompatibilites]
[Recommended reference:
Javascript
: The Definitive Guide, 3rd ed. (O'Reilly & Associates,
June 1998) by David Flanagan. Details all variants through JavaScript
1.3 and JScript 3.0.]
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