How does JavaScript relate to Java?

- I just want to get this out of the way right away. When you start looking on the web or in bookstores or in our courses, you'll quickly discover there are two coding languages that sound like they have a lot in common. Java and JavaScript. And to be fair based on their names, you have every reason to think they are related. Let me be clear, they are not. As Jeremy Keith once said, Java is to JavaScript what ham is to hamster. Java is a programing language used to write applications for computers and other devices.

JavaScript is a scripting language used to interact with content in a web browser and more recently in other places. The only thing they really have in common, is they both have the word java in their names. So why this confusion? The reason is equal parts practical, silly and bizarre. To paraphrase various trustworthy sources, the language was originally called Mocha, then renamed to LiveScripts and finally to JavaScripts when Netscape and Sun Microsystems did a licensing agreement that included the language.

The idea at the time was to make a scripting language complementary to Java and cash in on Java's popularity. As for why both languages used the word Java, the creators explained they were quote, "obsessed with naming things after coffee in the '90s." So if you want to build an application that runs on its own on a computer or other device, you can do so using Java. If on the other hand you want to build interactive websites, JavaScript is what you're looking for.

Java is to JavaScript what car is to carpet. JavaScript is to Java what cat is to catfish. Java is to JavaScript what fire is to Firefox, ox is to oxford, turn is to turnip, bee is to beef, you get the idea.