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

[Joel Shapiro]

Thanks so much for the reply, Kevin.  Great to know.

Best,
-Joel

On Aug 29, 2007, at 3:57 PM, Kevin Futter wrote:

> 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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