ECMAScript

Known under a variety of names including JScript (Microsoft) and ActionScript (Adobe). ECMAScript is a loosely LISP inspired tool with a somewhat C like syntax and despite its enormous popularity is widely considered one of the worst designed programming languages to ever escape into the wild and the only such horror story to gain any popularity since Perl. The classic example of how little forethought was used when cobbling the language together is that despite being released just over three years before the 1999/2000 turnover the first versions of the language were not year 2000 ready, resulting in a few set-top Internet access boxes that used Netscape starting to have odd failures on some webpages in 2000 despite being less than 2 years old.

It is possible to use ECMAScript as a tool to develop OS/2 desktop or even command-line applications, but due to the high number of problems with the current implementations you are advised not to do so unless compatibility with web based applications is a high priority. If you choose to use it it is recommended that you use an abstraction level like Microsoft Typescript.

OS/2 Implementations

• JavaScript 1.3
• ScriptEase - Commercial
• StarScript

Libraries

Compression libraries

• LZ4 - Open source
• Snappy - Open Source

Utilities and test suites

• ANTLR - Parser generator - Runs on Java and generates ECMAScript output code.

Editor support

• Boxer - Contributed, requires a separate download.

WinOS/2 Implementations

• ScriptEase - Commercial - Discontinued

OS independent ECMAScript tools

Programming tools written in ECMAScript

• Microsoft Typescript

Programming languages or tools that compile to ECMAScript

• Kotlin - Java/C++ like safer language,
• Microsoft Typescript - Rationalised front end

Standards

The commonly used standard is ECMAScript v3, but that is primarily to allow older browsers to work correctly, the current standard is v5.1 and should work with most modern browsers.

• ECMAScript Standard/ECMA 262 version 7.0 - 2016
• ECMAScript Standard/ECMA 262 version 5.1 - 2011
• ECMAScript for XML Standard/ECMA 357 version 2 - Optional extension to ECMA 262 also known as E4X and ISO/IEC 22537.
• ECMAScript Compact Profile Standard/ECMA 327 version 3 - "Compact Profile" standard, used in embedded devices.