What's Java?
So what's JavaScript?
What does iBrowse support?
Caveat emptor
How do I disable JavaScript?
JavaScript is a tremendous thing. Thanks to JavaScript, web pages can be quickly and easily enhanced with all manner of wonderful effects and interactive elements.
Actions can be made to happen when the mouse pointer is over a certain area of the page, or if a certain area of the page is clicked. Web pages can get input from readers using forms. Helpful programs can be provided that, for example, enable readers to perform calculations. And with just a little experience, web programmers can even give their audiences games to play.
But let's get one thing straight: JavaScript is not Java.
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Java is a compiled programming language, similar to C. It is powerful enough to write major applications and insert them in a web page as a special object called an applet.TOP
Java has generated a lot of excitement because it enables you to run the same program on any computer - provided, that is, the computer supports Java. Sadly, the Amiga does not currently support Java. Depending on what and who you believe, the Amiga may or may not support Java some time in the future. But as of right now (August 1999) there's no way on your Amiga to browse web pages that contain Java applets.TOP
JavaScript, on the other hand, is an interpreted programming language that can be embedded in web pages. JavaScript can enhance the dynamics and interactive features of a page. Special effects, forms, even games are all relatively easy to write in JavaScript, so easy in fact that there are probably more web pages out there that use JavaScript than those that don't.TOP
iBrowse 2 supports the ECMA-262 (now ISO-16262) standard of JavaScript. This means that iBrowse 2 can load pages that contain both JavaScript and JScript (the Microsoft equivalent). The currently supported version of JavaScript is 1.2.TOP
Now then. If the Amiga is the only computer you use to browse the web, then you may be surprised, nay, amazed to learn that the two famous PC and Mac web browsers, Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator, are forever getting tripped up, even crashed, by web pages that contain JavaScript. Indeed, often a page that loads OK in one browser, may not load properly, or at all, in the other. Therefore you should not become dismayed or suicidal if iBrowse 2 fails to properly load a web page that contains JavaScript.
Naturally, the more complex the JavaScript program, the more chance there is that it will contain at least one bug (error) that will cause the execution of the script to halt. Some browsers are more forgiving of certain types of common errors than others, which is why the same script may work, or not break in the same way, in all JavaScript-savvy browsers.TOP
Should you wish to prevent the JavaScript on all web pages from being interpreted, JavaScript can be disabled by deselecting Enable JavaScript in the Security preferences.TOP