Brendan Eich - Definition and Overview

Brendan Eich is a computer programmer. He created the JavaScript (now ECMAScript) programming language. He works at the Mozilla Foundation as Lead Technologist and is also on its Board of Directors.

Career

Eich started his career at Silicon Graphics, working for seven years on operating system and network code. He then worked for three years at MicroUnity Systems Engineering writing microkernel and DSP code, and doing the first MIPS R4000 port of gcc.

Eich is best known for his work on Netscape and Mozilla. He started work at Netscape Communications Corporation in April 1995, working on JavaScript (originally called Mocha, then called LiveScript) for the Netscape Navigator web browser. He then helped found mozilla.org in early 1998, serving as chief architect. When AOL shut down the Netscape browser unit in July 2003, Eich helped spin out the Mozilla Foundation.

Quote

"Content creation should not be recondite. It should not be this bizarre arcana that only experts and gold-plated computer science gurus can do." from Innovators of the Net: Brendan Eich and JavaScript

External links

• Brendan's Roadmap Updates (http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/roadmap/) (Mozilla roadmap weblog)
• Mozilla Futures: Analysis and Proposals (http://www.mozilla.org/events/dev-day-feb-2004/mozilla-futures/title.html) (Slides presented at Mozilla Developer Day on February 27, 2004; more detailed than the recent slides cited in roadmap blog)
• Innovators of the Net: Brendan Eich and JavaScript (http://wp.netscape.com/comprod/columns/techvision/innovators_be.html) (Marc Andreesen, Netscape TechVision, 24 Jun 1998)
• Brendan Eich and JavaScript (http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bl_javascript.htm) (about.com)