Industry Leaders to Advance Standardization of Netscape's JavaScript at Standards Body Meeting
Netscape to Post JavaScript Specification and Licensing Information on Internet Site
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (November 15, 1996) -- Netscape Communications Corporation (NASDAQ: NSCP) today announced a meeting of the ECMA international standards organization to advance the standardization of JavaScript, a cross-platform scripting technology for creating applications on the Internet and Intranets. The meeting, to be held in California November 21-22, resulted from Netscape's submission of JavaScript to ECMA for consideration as an industry standard.
To enable interested parties to review the JavaScript proposal, Netscape is posting the JavaScript specification on its Internet site. In addition, the company is providing information about how to license JavaScript at no charge as part of Netscape ONE, the open network environment. A new committee, chaired by Jan Van Den Beld, secretary general of ECMA, has been formed to oversee the process. Industry leaders including Apple Computer, Borland, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, ICL, Microsoft, Netscape, NIST and Sun Microsystems Inc. will join representatives from the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) at the meeting.
"Netscape continues to work closely with ECMA, IETF, WC3 and other industry leaders to advance Java and JavaScript as the standard development environments for Internet and Intranet applications," said Mike Homer, senior vice president of marketing for Netscape. "The millions of users of Java and JavaScript-enabled Netscape Navigator and Netscape SuiteSpot servers provide a ready market for developers creating network applications."
"This meeting marks another important step in the establishment of JavaScript as an open Internet standard," said Jon Kannegaard, vice president, products of the JavaSoft subsidiary of Sun Microsystems, Inc. "Netscape and Sun continue to work together to make it easier for developers and users to take advantage of the power of JavaScript."
JavaScript and Java are cornerstone technologies of the Netscape ONE platform for developing Internet and Intranet applications. In the short time since their introduction last year, the new languages have seen rapid developer acceptance with more than 175,000 Java applets and more than 300,000 JavaScript-enabled pages on the Internet today according to www.hotbot.com. With Java and JavaScript support incorporated into both its client and server products, Netscape is the most widely deployed software platform for building and running Java based applications, with millions of users worldwide. Netscape has released its Java and JavaScript-enabled Netscape Navigator 3.0 client software across Microsoft Windows 95 and Windows 3.1, Macintosh and UNIX operating environments.
ECMA, formerly known as the European Computer Manufacturers Association, is an international standards body with more than 30 years of experience in standardizing development languages and other technologies. ECMA is a principle participant in the International Standards Organization (ISO) standards family with a Class A ISO liaison, which will facilitate acceptance of JavaScript as an ISO standard.
Netscape Communications Corporation is a leading provider of open software for linking people and information over enterprise networks and the Internet. The company offers a full line of clients, servers,
development tools and commercial applications to create a complete platform for next-generation, live online applications. Traded on NASDAQ under the symbol "NSCP," Netscape Communications Corporation is based in Mountain View, California.
Additional information on Netscape Communications Corporation is available on the Internet at http://home.netscape.com, by sending email to info@netscape.com or by calling 415/528-2555 (corporations) or 415528-3777 (individuals). Information about ECMA can be obtained by sending email to helpdesk@ecma.ch.
Netscape, the Netscape Communications Corporation logo, Netscape ONE, Netscape SuiteSpot and Netscape Navigator are trademarks of Netscape Communications Corporation. All other product names are trademarks of their respective companies.