Quote:
Originally Posted by joglynne
@tiz, please forgive me asking what I suspect is a silly question but why don't you use Java, and what do you use instead?
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I think it's perhaps pointing out that although they share a similar name and in some ways a similar code structure, Java and Javascript are quite different beasts.
Javascript is built in to all browsers and is often used for ads, and for other things like input validation, and navigation on websites. While it's got more powerful over time, it was originally intended as a language to enable websites to be a little more interactive. Javascript cannot (AFAIK) be used to develop applications that run outside a web browser.
Java is a more advanced language, and while it can be used to do things like provide web menus and ads, it isn't generally in my experience. Thus most people have no real need for Java, unless they are using a package that is partially (or wholly) written in Java. Java can be used to develop applications that run inside or outside a web browser. Java is not built in to any web browser, and needs a plug in installed on the computer to run it.
Java is, unfortunately, proving to be extremely good at distributing Malware. So much so that I personally think it's time Sun (the programmers) did what MS did a few years ago with Windows. After the security embarrassment that was XP, shortly before the release of Vista and Service Pack 2 for XP, Microsoft stopped all development on Windows. Then they did a complete security audit on all of their source code and ended up deleting and re-writing a lot of it. It meant that Windows saw no new features for several months, but security on both XP and Vista was improved massively over previous versions.
That's not to say that Javascript cannot be used to deliver Malware. It can. It just seems that Java is being hit hardest at the moment.