Java code is typically written in an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and compiled into bytecode. While JavaScript has dabbled in the server-side realm for a while, the recent popularity of Node.js is causing more JavaScript-powered application servers to pop up all over the place.

Java has long been a major workhorse of the web with application servers like WebSphere, JBoss, and Apache Tomcat running a large portion of the web applications seen by users on both public sites and behind corporate firewalls. It is reasonable to expect a website visitor to have JavaScript enabled and it is common for a website visitor to have Java applets disabled, especially with the proliferation of mobile browsers.

Java applets can also run in a browser, but they have been declining in popularity for various reasons, including compatibility and security. JavaScript runs on most modern browsers, and most websites take advantage of this to enhance the user’s experience. Let’s take a look at some of their similarities and differences from a web development perspective: Both Can Run in a Browser Now that JavaScript has “grown up,” the comparison is much more complicated. If we traveled back in time about five years or so, this would be a simple comparison: Java is a general purpose programming language, and JavaScript is used on websites to make them animated and interactive. But if you’re reading this article, you’re probably interested in a more useful explanation, so let me compare the two. The evolution of the two languages took such wildly different paths from that point forward that the common joke is that Java is to JavaScript as ham is to a hamster. While most programmers groan at this coupling and many even feel that the name confusion is part of a marketing gimmick, the history of the two programming languages did intersect for a brief moment in time during the early days of Netscape. Everyone assumes that because JavaScript has “Java” in its name they are somehow related.

Is java and javascript the same