[thedebuglife]

I believe ECMAScript is the specification of which JavaScript is an implementation.

[_ZeD_]

I always have had problem with this definition... what do you mean by "implementation"? in my head "implementations" are "programs".

Like... "C" is a specification, "gcc" is an implementation. "Python" is a specification, "CPython", "PyPy", ... are implementations. "ECMAScript" is a specification, "webkit", "spidermonkey", ... are implementations.

"JavaScript" is a (trademarked) specification, and also "ECMAScript" and "JavaScript" are "very very similar" (wink wink)

[lloeki]

> "Python" is a specification, "CPython", "PyPy"

Is Python-the-language fully specified now? Of course there are now a lot of PEPs, but I seem to recall (way back then, even before PEP3000 was a thing) that the Python "spec" was largely the "CPython" implementation (incl. bugs and all), and "CPython" was not actually a real name but emerged from a need to distinguish the original Python implementation from "Python-the-language" as well as alternative implementations such as PyPy, JPython/Jython, IronPython...

[colordrops]

Flash's ActionScript was also ab implementation of ECMAScript IIRC

[derefr]

D20 is an open standard for a certain genre of tabletop role playing games, of which Dungeons and Dragons™ is an implementation. But D&D itself is an abstract concept, with two implementations: the open-game-licensed online “D20 SRD”, and the proprietary set of WotC-published core books.

[IshKebab]

It's not. ECMAScript is just an awkward name they used because people couldn't agree to use "JavaScript". They're really the same thing.

Implementations of ECMAScript/JavaScript are things like V8 and Spidermonkey.

[btilly]

And people couldn't agree to use JavaScript because the term was trademarked.