ECMAScript, JavaScript or JS

Understanding the relationship between ECMAScript specification and JavaScript implementations.

What is ECMAScript?

ECMAScript is the standardized specification that defines the core features and syntax of JavaScript. It's maintained by Ecma International under the ECMA-262 standard.

JavaScript vs ECMAScript

JavaScript is an implementation of the ECMAScript specification. Other implementations include JScript (Microsoft) and ActionScript (Adobe). JavaScript adds browser-specific APIs like the DOM and BOM on top of ECMAScript.

ECMAScript Versions

Modern ECMAScript versions are released annually: ES6 (2015) introduced classes and modules, ES2016 added array methods, ES2017 brought async/await, and subsequent versions continue to add features.