Microsoft and Mozilla disagree over future of JavaScript

Much of the battle has been between Mozilla Chief Technology Officer Brendan Eich -- the creator of JavaScript -- and Microsoft Internet Explorer platform architect Chris Wilson. The two have traded barbs through their blogs over the past week.

Wilson started the tiff by suggesting that the next version of ECMAScript, version 4, may be too much of a change to the language itself to continue it as "JavaScript." Instead, he suggested that a completely new language be developed, because so much of the structure of the language would be changed.

"We could continue supporting existing users as well as freeing the new language from constraints (including the constraint of [permanently] supporting scripts written in the old language)," he wrote on Wednesday.

He continued this in his own personal blog on Thursday, adding that Microsoft has attempted to work with the ECMA committee, but Microsoft's concerns were being ignored, and ES4 development had turned into a "yes or no battle."