The story of Brendan Eich, the inventor of JavaScript and the man who brought Firefox to success.

Creator of JavaScript, one of the most successful programming languages, Brendan Eich is counted among the fathers of the web. His personal story tells of an engineer who, at a very young age, joined one of the most innovative companies of the time, Netscape, and became one of its leading figures, thanks to his genius.

If he had only written Java Script, that would have been enough to go down in history. Instead, he continued to produce inventions, such as Mozilla, the famous browser, and to be ahead of his time with open source. Today, his thirst for innovation has not ended, and he has returned as a "startupper" with Brave Software, a new browser that blocks third-party cookies, making the web safer and faster.

Assoprovider retraces some of the most significant milestones in its history.

A precocious talent for the web

Like many Internet geniuses, Brendan is an early talent. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he is destined for greatness. From a very young age, he amazes family and friends with his programming skills. And not only that, by the age of 16, he is already known in the most exclusive circles of Silicon Valley.

He obtained his degree in computer and mathematical sciences from Santa Clara University in California in 1985. Silicon companies are "fighting" to secure his programming talent. Brendan accumulates significant experiences: Silicon Graphic, MicroUnity, Systems Engineering… are some of the companies where he hones his coding skills.

10 days to create Java Script

However, the most formative experience is yet to come. In Netscape, the first browser in history (we discuss it here) meet the genius of Marc Andreessen who hires him to implement Scheme, a programming language, within the web browser.

It is known that the first difference between an ordinary person and a genius is that the latter usually does not just complete the task at hand! Brendan goes beyond the assigned duties and in just 10 days creates a new programming language that facilitates the creation of websites and web applications.

Initially called Mocha (and only later Java Script in 1995), it was designed for Netscape and is destined to forever revolutionize the life of the web.

What is JavaScript

Brendan invents the first web scripting language. The program is read by the browser without the need for it to be translated like other coding programs, and it allows for an infinite number of operations to be executed.

Brendan's idea is to make web pages more interactive. JavaScript indeed supports HTML, the "static" language used to define the structure of the page (title, frames, boxes, texts, and images...). It thus allows for the addition of dynamic effects, e.g., objects moving around the page, drop-down menus, disappearing menus, etc.

The advantages are numerous, including the speed of code execution, the saving in resource usage (such as CPU and RAM memory), the management of a huge number of requests per second, and ease of use.

Mozilla and open source

Java Script is not the only "treasure" that originates from Netscape. Brendan is instrumental in the creation of the browser that surpasses Netscape's performance: we are talking about Mozilla, the company behind the success of Firefox.

Mozilla was born from Netscape's decision to make the code public: one of the very first examples of open source in the history of the web. After the acquisition of Netscape by AOL, the multinational decided to shut down the browser development unit.

It was then that Brendan, along with other programmers from the company, decided to break away and make the project independent: thus was born first the Mozilla Foundation and in 2005, Mozilla Corporation, where the programmer initially served as CTO, eventually becoming CEO.

Due to internal vicissitudes regarding political positions, Brendan is then forced to relinquish the helm: he resigns in April 2014.

The rebirth as a startupper

Throughout his career, Brendan has demonstrated his ability to continuously reinvent himself and take on new challenges. Today, Brave Browser leads, an open-source system that enhances web browsing. Users can, through an Adblock mechanism, block the most intrusive advertisements and choose which promotions to view, in exchange for compensation.

Users who agree to watch advertisements earn credits that they can then spend in the browser.