[FX.php List] When did JavaScript start being enabled by default?

[Kevin Futter]

On 30/8/07 6:13 AM, "Joel Shapiro" <jsfmp at earthlink.net> wrote:

> Hi all
> 
> I want to use quite a bit of AJAX on a new project, but I want to let
> the client know that it will require JavaScript to be enabled on all
> users' browsers.  I know I can build ways for the site to deal with
> disabled JavaScript, but it's not a public website so it might not be
> worth my time if the user group can be fairly well controlled.  (This
> is not a critical project, though of course I'll take server-side
> precautions as necessary)
> 
> The client has said that they've got some computers onsite that are
> up to seven years old, and they're running Camino and Safari on
> them.  I'll give them a couple JavaScript sites for them to test on
> their older machines, but does anyone know when JavaScript started
> coming enabled by default on browsers?  It seems to me that by 2000
> JavaScript would have been enabled regularly.  Your thoughts?

With older browsers, the problem isn't so much a JavaScript/no JavaScript
binary issue, but rather, what version/level of JavaScript does it support?
JavaScript took off pretty quickly in the browser world, and was everywhere
by the late '90s. Microsoft muddied the waters with their introduction of
Jscript, which was largely, but not completely, compatible with JavaScript.

IIRC, JScript is now completely ECMAScript compliant, but it was here that
MS brought the XMLHttpRequest object into being. I'm not sure at what point
in its evolution this happened. I also have no idea at what point it was
incorporated into JS.

So, with XHR being essential for AJAX to work, you really need to test for
this object prior to proceeding, rather than JavaScript itself, as JS may be
present but too old to have XHR implemented.

I'm sure there'd be data on all that somewhere on the web, but I guess
simply testing for XHR and acting accordingly would be sufficient.

-- 
Kevin Futter
Webmaster, St. Bernard's College
http://www.sbc.melb.catholic.edu.au/




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