ECMAScript stopped a browser language war by standardizing JavaScript in 1997

JavaScript spread through Netscape 2.0 in 1995 and was quickly reverse-engineered by Microsoft as JScript for Internet Explorer 3.0. Within a year, developers were hitting interoperability problems between the two.

In November 1996, work began under Ecma International to standardize the language. Microsoft's Thomas Reardon told the new TC39 committee how hard it was to keep JScript compatible with Netscape and stressed the need for a formal specification.

TC39 produced the first ECMA-262 in about seven months, approved in June 1997; the name ECMAScript was chosen after trademark issues ruled out preferred candidates. ISO/IEC 16262 followed in 1998. JScript and JavaScript converged on the standard, and no rival browser language has displaced it since.

One neutral spec keeps rivals compatible

A neutral spec let Microsoft and Netscape share one language.

Seven months of work beat the fragmentation that was already starting.

Fast-track ISO adoption gave it formal international standing.

Browser game theory made any new rival language nearly impossible.

When a de facto standard is owned by one vendor, rivals fork it; moving the specification to a neutral body converts a clone war into a shared platform everyone can build on.

ECMAScript is one of the most successful standards on the web; TC39 still evolves it, and every browser implements the same core language.