As JavaScript’s creator, I would like to say a few words about where JavaScript has been, where it is going, and how the book you’re holding will help you to make the most of the language. JavaScript was born out of a desire to let HTML authors write scripts directly in their documents. This may seem obvious now, but in the spring of 1995 it was novel and more than a little at odds with both the conventional wisdom (that HTML should describe static document structure only) and the Next Big Thing (Java applets, which were hyped as the one true way to enliven and extend Web pages).