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JavaScript Versions History

JavaScript is a versatile and powerful programming language that has evolved significantly since its inception in 1995. Over the years, JavaScript has undergone several major revisions, introducing new features and enhancements to the language. In this tutorial, we will explore the history of JavaScript versions, starting from the initial release in 1995 to the latest version. We will discuss the key features introduced in each version and the evolution of the JavaScript language over the years.

JavaScript Versions​

1. JavaScript 1.0 (1995)​

JavaScript was first introduced in 1995 by Brendan Eich at Netscape Communications. The initial version of JavaScript, known as JavaScript 1.0, was released in the same year. JavaScript 1.0 included the core features of the language, such as variables, functions, loops, and conditional statements.

2. JavaScript 1.1 (1996)​

JavaScript 1.1 was released in 1996 and introduced several new features, including support for regular expressions, better error handling, and improved performance. This version also added support for the let statement and the const statement for declaring variables.

3. JavaScript 1.2 (1997)​

JavaScript 1.2 was released in 1997 and introduced several new features, such as support for do-while loops, the switch statement, and the for-in loop. This version also added support for the eval() function for evaluating JavaScript code dynamically.

4. JavaScript 1.3 (1998)​

JavaScript 1.3 was released in 1998 and introduced several new features, including support for regular expressions, better error handling, and improved performance. This version also added support for the let statement and the const statement for declaring variables.

5. JavaScript 1.4 (1999)​

JavaScript 1.4 was released in 1999 and introduced several new features, such as support for do-while loops, the switch statement, and the for-in loop. This version also added support for the eval() function for evaluating JavaScript code dynamically.

6. JavaScript 1.5 (2000)​

JavaScript 1.5 was released in 2000 and introduced several new features, including support for array methods such as forEach(), map(), filter(), and reduce(). This version also added support for the Function.prototype.bind() method for binding the this value in functions.

7. JavaScript 1.6 (2005)​

JavaScript 1.6 was released in 2005 and introduced several new features, such as support for array methods such as forEach(), map(), filter(), and reduce(). This version also added support for the Function.prototype.bind() method for binding the this value in functions.

8. JavaScript 1.7 (2006)​

JavaScript 1.7 was released in 2006 and introduced several new features, such as support for array methods such as forEach(), map(), filter(), and reduce(). This version also added support for the Function.prototype.bind() method for binding the this value in functions.

9. JavaScript 1.8 (2008)​

JavaScript 1.8 was released in 2008 and introduced several new features, such as support for array methods such as forEach(), map(), filter(), and reduce(). This version also added support for the Function.prototype.bind() method for binding the this value in functions.

10. ECMAScript 5 (2009)​

ECMAScript 5 was released in 2009 and introduced several new features, such as strict mode, JSON support, and array methods such as forEach(), map(), filter(), and reduce(). This version also added support for the Function.prototype.bind() method for binding the this value in functions.

11. ECMAScript 5.1 (2011)​

ECMAScript 5.1 was released in 2011 and introduced several new features, such as strict mode, JSON support, and array methods such as forEach(), map(), filter(), and reduce(). This version also added support for the Function.prototype.bind() method for binding the this value in functions.

12. ECMAScript 6 (ES2015)​

ECMAScript 6, also known as ES2015, was released in 2015 and introduced several new features, such as arrow functions, classes, modules, template literals, and destructuring assignments. This version also added support for the let statement and the const statement for declaring variables.

13. ECMAScript 7 (ES2016)​

ECMAScript 7, also known as ES2016, was released in 2016 and introduced several new features, such as the includes() method for arrays, the ** operator for exponentiation, and the async and await keywords for handling asynchronous operations.

14. ECMAScript 8 (ES2017)​

ECMAScript 8, also known as ES2017, was released in 2017 and introduced several new features, such as the Object.values() method, the Object.entries() method, and the String.prototype.padStart() and String.prototype.padEnd() methods for padding strings.

15. ECMAScript 9 (ES2018)​

ECMAScript 9, also known as ES2018, was released in 2018 and introduced several new features, such as asynchronous iteration, the Promise.prototype.finally() method, and rest/spread properties for object literals and destructuring.

16. ECMAScript 10 (ES2019)​

ECMAScript 10, also known as ES2019, was released in 2019 and introduced several new features, such as Array.prototype.flat() and Array.prototype.flatMap() methods, the Object.fromEntries() method, and the String.prototype.trimStart() and String.prototype.trimEnd() methods.

17. ECMAScript 11 (ES2020)​

ECMAScript 11, also known as ES2020, was released in 2020 and introduced several new features, such as the BigInt data type for working with arbitrary precision integers, the Promise.allSettled() method, and the String.prototype.matchAll() method for working with regular expressions.

18. ECMAScript 12 (ES2021)​

ECMAScript 12, also known as ES2021, was released in 2021 and introduced several new features, such as the String.prototype.replaceAll() method for replacing all occurrences of a substring, the Logical Assignment Operators for combining logical operations with assignment, and the Numeric Separators for improving the readability of numeric literals.

19. ECMAScript 13 (ES2022)​

ECMAScript 13, also known as ES2022, was released in 2022 and introduced several new features, such as the Array.prototype.groupBy() method for grouping array elements based on a key, the String.prototype.sliceSet() method for replacing a slice of a string with another string, and the Object.hasOwn() method for checking if an object has a property.

20. ECMAScript 14 (ES2023)​

ECMAScript 14, also known as ES2023, is the upcoming version of JavaScript that is expected to be released in 2023. It is expected to introduce several new features and enhancements to the language, building upon the foundation laid by previous versions.

Conclusion​

In this tutorial, we explored the history of JavaScript versions, starting from the initial release in 1995 to the latest version. We discussed the key features introduced in each version and the evolution of the JavaScript language over the years. JavaScript has come a long way since its inception and continues to evolve to meet the changing needs of developers and the web platform.