The idea for Java was initially hatched in 1990 when a handful of developers at Sun Microsystems set out to build a device that could control everyday consumer appliances ranging from toasters to VCRs. Soon this vision was expanded to include a device that could potentially serve as an interface to the Internet. By late 1991, an object-oriented programming language called Oak had been developed.
Sun wanted to build a system that could be programmed easily without a lot of esoteric training. While the developers found C++ to be unsuitable for their needs, they designed Java as closely to C++ as possible in order to make the system more comprehensible.
In January, 1995, the Oak programming language was renamed Java, just as it began to attract serious attention from the greater Internet community.
JavaScript was developed by Netscape in Navigator version 2.0, and originally named it Livescript. It is very similar to Java, but is much simpler and is an interpreted scripting language, rather than a compiled language. In late 1995, Sun Microsystems provided their endorsement of LiveScript and it then became known as JavaScript.
In addition, America Online, Apple, Oracle, Silicon Graphics, Architext and SCO have endorsed JavaScript as the open scripting standard for the internet. It is important to note that Microsoft has developed their own version of JavaScript called Jscript which is not fully compatible with the Netscape version of JavaScript. This unfortunately leads to compatibility problems between Navigator and Internet Explorer for pages containing Javascript.