Brendan Eich: JavaScript, Firefox, Mozilla, and Brave | Lex Fridman Podcast #160

Lex Fridman5 HN recommenders · 2021–2023
878K views · podcast · evergreen · Uploaded 2021-02-12

A roughly three-hour Lex Fridman podcast conversation with Brendan Eich, creator of JavaScript and co-founder of Mozilla and Brave. It covers JavaScript's rushed creation at Netscape, the browser wars, Firefox and Mozilla, and Brave's privacy approach.

Linked as a source for first-hand JavaScript and Netscape history, with commenters pointing to specific segments like the Java versus JavaScript decision.

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11 comments from Hacker News

@BrendanEich2021 · in “Brendan Eich on the Lex Fridman Podcast [video]”

Hyatt anecdote at [VIDEO] . The point is not about Silicon Valley, commercialization of the Web (although as Dorothy Denning observed, the pre-Web Academic Internet was a more secure world only because not many attackers yet), or academic pressure. WiB applies to biology. I have friends at a synth-bio startup, one tweeted humorously the other month about how bad a hack evolution is!

@jcims2021 · in “Faster JavaScript Calls”

Lex Fridman just did a great podcast episode with Brendan Eich, credited with creating JavaScript. Lots of great little tidbits of history in the conversation - [VIDEO]

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@onetom2021 · in “Choose Boring Technology (2015)”

Recommended "literature": 1. 10 Things I Regret About Node.js - Ryan Dahl - JSConf EU ( [LINK] ) 2. Brendan Eich: JavaScript, Firefox, Mozilla, and Brave | Lex Fridman Podcast #160 ( [VIDEO] )

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@pmurt72021 · in “Brave buys a search engine, promises no tracking, no profiling”

There was this wonderful podcast featuring Eich a few days ago: "Brendan Eich: JavaScript, Firefox, Mozilla, and Brave" [VIDEO]

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@jasode2021 · in “The End of Applets”

>If only the conversations between Sun and Netscape had gone a little differently back in the day, and we'd had a single language/system in the browser Brendan Eich said there were discussions with Sun (e.g. Bill Joy) and Marc Andreessen and all agreed[1] there should deliberately be 2 languages instead of 1 in the Netscape browser: (1) an "easier/simpler" scripting type of language LiveScript aka Javascript (2) a "professional" compiled type of language like Java for more complex applications So, it wasn't an accident, or case of NIH Not Invented Here, or corporate bickering. What they didn't foresee in 1994 is that the non-professional Javascript would end up adding more (pro) features that it enabled it to eliminate the need for Java Applets. [1] deep link to B.E. explanation: [VIDEO]

@112358132134552021 · in “AskHN: How much is Chrome and how much is Chromium?”

similarly to your experience, I'm using Brave browser (based on chromium) since recently (after watching [VIDEO] ), mostly attracted by the built-in adblocker

@michaelsbradley2021 · in “Brave Search beta”

Lex Fridman interviewed Brendan Eich earlier this year (a real gem of an interview, in my opinion). I found all of it interesting, but here's a timecode link where they begin to discuss the current era of "browser wars", technical aspects and history of privacy protections, ads, search, and how that's all related. [VIDEO]

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@BrendanEich2021 · in “How JavaScript Works: deep dive into call, apply, and bind”

Ten day Mocha had strict ==, so better in that regard. History is detailed at [VIDEO] . Rather than assuming a too-simple version, check out the details for how things went down. Do-overs not possible, by better new forms over time helped. Honest q: Do you actually use modern JS at all?

@EMRZ2022 · in ““I am literally losing sleep” over Java (1996)”

It was the battle for "the web" and the sun+netscape partnership was an actual menace to microsoft's activex and vbscript things. There is an espisode the Lex Fridman podcast with Brendan Eich where he talks a little about that specific time.[1] The "panic" was right imo (only in that specific area) i mean, there is almost 0 microsoft on the web today. [1]: [VIDEO]

@BrendanEich2022 · in “The influence of Self”

Scope in early JS was handled through a parent slot. Self was a big influence but I had no time to honor it properly. JS had ten days till a demo to prove to factions in Netscape and to most of Sun (Bill Joy was ally) that it had a role to play. See [VIDEO] (earlier if you have time).

@hnrodey2023 · in “Netscape and Sun announce JavaScript (1995)”

If this is exciting for you then you'll love this podcast with Brendan Eich. Brendan Eich is the creator of JavaScript and co-founder of Mozilla and Brave. [VIDEO]

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