What is ECMAScript?


ECMAScript is the scripting language standardized by Ecma International in the ECMA-262 specification. In short, ECMAScript is a language specification.

Many languages follow and implement the ECMAScript specification, e.g., JavaScript, ActionScript, Nashorn.

ECMAScript and languages

Ecma international releases standard specifications from time to time. The current edition is the Ecma-262 Edition 5.1. Currently, most browsers offer full support for JavaScript ECMAScript 5.1 edition.

What is the next edition of ECMAScript?

The next ECMAScript specification is Ecma-262 6th Edition, which is called ES6.

The following table lists all the publications of Ecma-262 editions.

Ecma Edition Published date
1 June 1997
2 June 1998
3 Dec 1999
4 Abandoned
5 December 2009
5.1 June 2011
6 June 2015 (scheduled)