Did you read the last link, the HN comment?
Update: http://javascriptjabber.com/124-jsj-the-origin-of-javascript... has more detail.
The point of all this isn't subtle. MS was coming after Netscape, copying and injecting stuff like VBScript. JS was a rush job because of this. If it had waited till Netscape 3 the odds of a VBScript mandatory single scripting language for the Web would've been high. Netscape 4 was way too late.
Only by going out in Netscape 2 did JS preempt that VBScript dystopia. Only by looking like Java did it get management support. Only by being its own language did it happen in ten days.
/be
brazilian government FML! I mean, FTW!
The lesson here is a bigger one: how new tech wins a race when it's chased by a big monster truck. Javascript got out there fast/first, looked familiar, and sidestepped conventions.
That Javascript went to ECMA for standardization, to push back on Microsoft, was a nice touch.
I guess one can't thank you enough for saving the web from VBScript!
http://javascriptjabber.com/124-jsj-the-origin-of-javascript...
and you'll see what I wanted to do absent the "make it look like Java" orders. More natural language syntax, no curly braces -- like Logo, Smalltalk, Self, HyperCard.
/be