Proxomitron , the Universal Web Filter, is a filtering web proxy written by Scott R. Lemmon. This program was originally designed to run under Windows 95. All future development of the program was ceased in 2003 one year before its author's death on 1 May 2004. Proxomitron is still viable and used on later Windows platforms such as Vista and Windows 10.
54-520: The program is generally used to block pop-ups and banners , to remove embedded sounds and animation from web pages, to alter or block JavaScript , and to modify the appearance and content of web pages. Properly configured, Proxomitron intercepts HTTP traffic between the user's browser and web servers. The program is capable of altering web page content by removing or adding text. Additionally, it can add, modify, or delete HTTP message headers, be configured to block connections or redirect requests based on
108-866: A browser war with Netscape. On the JavaScript front, Microsoft created its own interpreter called JScript . Microsoft first released JScript in 1996, alongside initial support for CSS and extensions to HTML . Each of these implementations was noticeably different from their counterparts in Netscape Navigator . These differences made it difficult for developers to make their websites work well in both browsers, leading to widespread use of "best viewed in Netscape" and "best viewed in Internet Explorer" logos for several years. Brendan Eich later said of this period: "It's still kind of
162-543: A graphical user interface , Mosaic , was released in 1993. Accessible to non-technical people, it played a prominent role in the rapid growth of the early World Wide Web . The lead developers of Mosaic then founded the Netscape corporation, which released a more polished browser, Netscape Navigator , in 1994. This quickly became the most-used. During these formative years of the Web, web pages could only be static, lacking
216-523: A sidekick language. It's considered slow or annoying. People do pop-ups or those scrolling messages in the old status bar at the bottom of your old browser ." In November 1996, Netscape submitted JavaScript to Ecma International , as the starting point for a standard specification that all browser vendors could conform to. This led to the official release of the first ECMAScript language specification in June 1997. The standards process continued for
270-499: A toolbar or software application on a computing device, whereas '229 covers the method used to open an exit pop from an embedded script found within a media file (e.g., JavaScript code on a web page). Copyright aspects of pop-up advertising are discussed in the Misplaced Pages articles on derivative works and transformativeness . Both articles contain illustrations and links to examples of pop-up advertising. JavaScript This
324-542: A Navigator beta in September 1995, the name was changed to JavaScript for the official release in December. The choice of the JavaScript name has caused confusion, implying that it is directly related to Java. At the time, the dot-com boom had begun and Java was a popular new language, so Eich considered the JavaScript name a marketing ploy by Netscape. Microsoft debuted Internet Explorer in 1995, leading to
378-418: A database query to return information. The notable standalone runtimes are Node.js , Deno , and Bun . The following features are common to all conforming ECMAScript implementations unless explicitly specified otherwise. JavaScript supports much of the structured programming syntax from C (e.g., if statements, while loops, switch statements, do while loops, etc.). One partial exception
432-436: A few years, with the release of ECMAScript 2 in June 1998 and ECMAScript 3 in December 1999. Work on ECMAScript 4 began in 2000. However, the effort to fully standardize the language was undermined by Microsoft gaining an increasingly dominant position in the browser market. By the early 2000s, Internet Explorer 's market share reached 95%. This meant that JScript became the de facto standard for client-side scripting on
486-424: A mouse click event listener attached directly to the document or the document's body. This enables catching all mouse click events that were not consumed by other click event handlers, and calling window.open without being blocked. For example, when the user selects a text, the mouse click triggers the mouse click handler attached to the document and a pop-under opens using the above code. Other techniques to bypass
540-545: A patent in 2000 on a subset of pop-under advertising called an exit pop. After years of controversy and numerous articles on the pop-under patent, the patent was awarded by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in April and June 2008. The respective patent numbers are U.S. patent 7,386,555 ('555) and U.S. patent 7,353,229 ('229). '555 is related to the method of opening an exit pop from
594-534: A pop-up with any action, including with a cancel or innocent-looking button. Because of bad experiences and apprehensive of possible damage that they may cause, some users do not click on or interact with any item inside a pop-up window whatsoever, and may leave the site that generated them or block all pop-ups. Opera was the first major browser to incorporate tools to block pop-up ads; the Mozilla browser later improved on this by blocking only pop-ups generated as
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#1732802082722648-455: A secondary payload that uses Adobe Flash . They can also be generated by other vulnerabilities/security holes in browser security . A variation on the pop-up window, the pop-under advertisement, opens a new browser window under the active window . Pop-unders do not interrupt the user immediately but appear when the user closes the covering window, making it more challenging to determine which website created them. Pop-up ads originated on
702-452: A stand-alone JavaScript runtime system. As of 2018, Node had been used by millions of developers, and npm had the most modules of any package manager in the world. The ECMAScript draft specification is currently maintained openly on GitHub , and editions are produced via regular annual snapshots. Potential revisions to the language are vetted through a comprehensive proposal process. Now, instead of edition numbers, developers check
756-598: A variety of apps . The most popular runtime system for non-browser usage is Node.js . JavaScript is a high-level , often just-in-time compiled language that conforms to the ECMAScript standard. It has dynamic typing , prototype-based object-orientation , and first-class functions . It is multi-paradigm , supporting event-driven , functional , and imperative programming styles . It has application programming interfaces (APIs) for working with text, dates, regular expressions , standard data structures , and
810-827: A variety of other software systems, both for server-side website deployments and non-browser applications . Initial attempts at promoting server-side JavaScript usage were Netscape Enterprise Server and Microsoft 's Internet Information Services , but they were small niches. Server-side usage eventually started to grow in the late 2000s, with the creation of Node.js and other approaches . Electron , Cordova , React Native , and other application frameworks have been used to create many applications with behavior implemented in JavaScript. Other non-browser applications include Adobe Acrobat support for scripting PDF documents and GNOME Shell extensions written in JavaScript. JavaScript has been used in some embedded systems , usually by leveraging Node.js. A JavaScript engine
864-520: A white paper in which he coined the term Ajax and described a set of technologies, of which JavaScript was the backbone, to create web applications where data can be loaded in the background, avoiding the need for full page reloads. This sparked a renaissance period of JavaScript, spearheaded by open-source libraries and the communities that formed around them. Many new libraries were created, including jQuery , Prototype , Dojo Toolkit , and MooTools . Google debuted its Chrome browser in 2008, with
918-418: A window in front of the user's screen, load an advertisement, and then send it behind the screen. Most modern browsers allow window.open to execute only if it was called by a user interaction (e.g., a mouse click) event handler . Any non-interactive calls (timer callback, load events, etc.) to window.open result in the new window being blocked. To bypass this restriction, most pop-under ads trigger on
972-530: Is scoping : originally JavaScript only had function scoping with var ; block scoping was added in ECMAScript 2015 with the keywords let and const . Like C, JavaScript makes a distinction between expressions and statements . One syntactic difference from C is automatic semicolon insertion , which allow semicolons (which terminate statements) to be omitted. JavaScript is weakly typed , which means certain types are implicitly cast depending on
1026-527: Is a software component that executes JavaScript code . The first JavaScript engines were mere interpreters , but all relevant modern engines use just-in-time compilation for improved performance. JavaScript engines are typically developed by web browser vendors, and every major browser has one. In a browser, the JavaScript engine runs in concert with the rendering engine via the Document Object Model and Web IDL bindings. However,
1080-437: Is an accepted version of this page JavaScript ( / ˈ dʒ ɑː v ə s k r ɪ p t / ), often abbreviated as JS , is a programming language and core technology of the Web , alongside HTML and CSS . 99% of websites use JavaScript on the client side for webpage behavior. Web browsers have a dedicated JavaScript engine that executes the client code . These engines are also utilized in some servers and
1134-487: Is by far the most-used. Other notable ones include Angular , Bootstrap , Lodash , Modernizr , React , Underscore , and Vue . Multiple options can be used in conjunction, such as jQuery and Bootstrap. However, the term "Vanilla JS" was coined for websites not using any libraries or frameworks at all, instead relying entirely on standard JavaScript functionality. The use of JavaScript has expanded beyond its web browser roots. JavaScript engines are now embedded in
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#17328020827221188-552: Is the dominant client-side scripting language of the Web, with 99% of all websites using it for this purpose. Scripts are embedded in or included from HTML documents and interact with the DOM . All major web browsers have a built-in JavaScript engine that executes the code on the user's device. Over 80% of websites use a third-party JavaScript library or web framework as part of their client-side scripting. jQuery
1242-430: The window.open call restriction do so by "hijacking" mouse clicks. Hover ads, more commonly called in-page pop-ups, are a special type of pop-up ads created using Dynamic HTML , JavaScript and similar web browser technologies. Because they do not scroll with the web page, they appear to "hover" over the page, usually obscuring the content. Hover ads tend to be very hard to block by pop-up blocking software, because
1296-450: The Document Object Model (DOM). The ECMAScript standard does not include any input/output (I/O), such as networking , storage , or graphics facilities. In practice, the web browser or other runtime system provides JavaScript APIs for I/O. Although Java and JavaScript are similar in name, syntax , and respective standard libraries , the two languages are distinct and differ greatly in design. The first popular web browser with
1350-516: The Firefox browser. Firefox was well received by many, taking significant market share from Internet Explorer. In 2005, Mozilla joined ECMA International, and work started on the ECMAScript for XML (E4X) standard. This led to Mozilla working jointly with Macromedia (later acquired by Adobe Systems ), who were implementing E4X in their ActionScript 3 language, which was based on an ECMAScript 4 draft. The goal became standardizing ActionScript 3 as
1404-593: The Stylish addon, also allow for local modification of web pages. Pop-up ad Pop-up ads or pop-ups are forms of online advertising on the World Wide Web . A pop-up is a graphical user interface (GUI) display area, usually a small window, that suddenly appears ("pops up") in the foreground of the visual interface. The pop-up window containing an advertisement is usually generated by JavaScript that uses cross-site scripting (XSS), sometimes with
1458-549: The Tripod.com webpage hosting site in the late 1990s. JavaScript provided the capability for a web page to open another window. Ethan Zuckerman claims he used that capability to launch advertisements in separate windows as a response to complaints from advertisers about their ads appearing on pages with sexual content. Zuckerman later apologized for the unforeseen nuisance pop-up ads had evolved into. Web development and design technologies allow an author to associate any item on
1512-511: The V8 JavaScript engine that was faster than its competition. The key innovation was just-in-time compilation (JIT), so other browser vendors needed to overhaul their engines for JIT. In July 2008, these disparate parties came together for a conference in Oslo . This led to the eventual agreement in early 2009 to combine all relevant work and drive the language forward. The result was
1566-434: The web page address , and be configured to route connections through a remote proxy. The user can monitor connections and filter activations, if desired. Program operation is dictated through the use of a configuration file containing specialized filters which can be written, edited, deleted, enabled or disabled by the user via the program's graphical user interface. (Third-party filters can also be imported, or "merged", into
1620-514: The ECMAScript 5 standard, released in December 2009. Ambitious work on the language continued for several years, culminating in an extensive collection of additions and refinements being formalized with the publication of ECMAScript 6 in 2015. The creation of Node.js in 2009 by Ryan Dahl sparked a significant increase in the usage of JavaScript outside of web browsers. Node combines the V8 engine, an event loop , and I/O APIs , thereby providing
1674-634: The Proxomitron program is still functional, and there is a community of users who provide support for it through electronic forums. Filters, filter sets, compatible DLLs and other files, and GUI patches to restyle and/or update Proxomitron's graphical user interface are also being provided by users. Many current browsers do contain features similar to those provided by Proxomitron filters – blocking advertisements and pop-ups, for example. Other browser features or add-ons, such as Greasemonkey for Firefox and user stylesheets for Firefox and other browsers via
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1728-477: The United States. The trademark was originally issued to Sun Microsystems on 6 May 1997, and was transferred to Oracle when they acquired Sun in 2009. A letter was circulated in September 2024, spearheaded by Ryan Dahl , calling on Oracle to free the JavaScript trademark . Brendan Eich the original creator of JavaScript, was among the over 14,000 signatories who supported the initiative. JavaScript
1782-405: The Web. Microsoft initially participated in the standards process and implemented some proposals in its JScript language, but eventually it stopped collaborating on ECMA work. Thus ECMAScript 4 was mothballed. During the period of Internet Explorer dominance in the early 2000s, client-side scripting was stagnant. This started to change in 2004, when the successor of Netscape, Mozilla , released
1836-426: The ability to import scripts. JavaScript is a single- threaded language. The runtime processes messages from a queue one at a time, and it calls a function associated with each new message, creating a call stack frame with the function's arguments and local variables . The call stack shrinks and grows based on the function's needs. When the call stack is empty upon function completion, JavaScript proceeds to
1890-401: The advertiser's site. An advertisement can also look like a normal window . Pop-up blockers cannot block the ad because it is a part of the webpage, but it can be blocked with third-party ad blockers such as AdBlock and Adblock Plus , or by using custom style sheets . URLs are sometimes redirected to advertisement pages by URL redirection . URLs are sometimes opened in a new tab and then
1944-485: The button performs an unexpected or unauthorized action (such as opening a new pop-up or downloading an unwanted file on the user's system). A hover ad or in-page pop-up uses JavaScript to combine a banner ad , and a pop-up window that appears in front of the browser screen. JavaScript imposes an advertisement over a webpage in a transparent layer. This advertisement can appear in a variety of forms. For example, an advertisement can contain an animation that links to
1998-527: The capability for dynamic behavior after the page was loaded in the browser. There was a desire in the flourishing web development scene to remove this limitation, so in 1995, Netscape decided to add a programming language to Navigator. They pursued two routes to achieve this: collaborating with Sun Microsystems to embed the Java language, while also hiring Brendan Eich to embed the Scheme language. The goal
2052-403: The configuration.) The filters utilize a "matching" language similar to the standard regular expressions used in text editing. Additional files, such as "blocklists" and SSL DLLs, can extend filtering capabilities. Use of the program requires knowledge of the Proxomitron scripting language, and some familiarity with at least one of HTTP , HTML , JavaScript , and CSS . The scripting interface
2106-454: The content of the old background tab will be replaced with an advertisement page by URL redirection , other times it switches the tab the user is on to the advertisement tab. Adblock Plus and NoScript cannot block these redirects. Pop-under ads are similar to pop-up ads, but the ad window appears hidden behind the main browser window rather than superimposed in front of it. As pop-up ads became more widespread and intrusive, often taking up
2160-426: The course of their normal interaction with a web browser. Ordinarily, users respond by dismissing the pop-up through the "close" or "cancel" feature of the window hosting the pop-up. Because this is a typical response, some authors of pop-up advertising depend on this and create on-screen buttons or controls that look similar to a "close" or "cancel" option. When the user chooses one of these "simulated cancel" options,
2214-573: The hover ad window is an integral part of the HTML content of the web page. Thus software filtering the content has no algorithmic means of recognizing and removing parts of the content, either descriptive or procedural, that create, populate and manipulate the hover ad's window. Most pop-up advertising tools include built-in measurement possibilities. These are often dashboards that offer a detailed analysis of your current and previous pop-up ads. Typically, measurable items include: ExitExchange.com filed for
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2268-502: The message: 消えました This reads kiemashita ( 消えました ) in Japanese and translates to "it went out" or "gone." The original home webpage is no longer accessible. Lemmon's mirror redirect was changed to display a different final message from the author a short time later. The author, Scott R. Lemmon, died 1 May 2004 aged 36. As this was a closed-source project, Proxomitron is no longer being maintained or developed; however,
2322-497: The new ECMAScript 4. To this end, Adobe Systems released the Tamarin implementation as an open source project. However, Tamarin and ActionScript 3 were too different from established client-side scripting, and without cooperation from Microsoft , ECMAScript 4 never reached fruition. Meanwhile, very important developments were occurring in open-source communities not affiliated with ECMA work. In 2005, Jesse James Garrett released
2376-414: The next message in the queue. This is called the event loop , described as "run to completion" because each message is fully processed before the next message is considered. However, the language's concurrency model describes the event loop as non-blocking : program I/O is performed using events and callback functions . This means, for example, that JavaScript can process a mouse click while waiting for
2430-409: The operation used. Values are cast to strings like the following: Values are cast to numbers by casting to strings and then casting the strings to numbers. These processes can be modified by defining toString and valueOf functions on the prototype for string and number casting respectively. JavaScript has received criticism for the way it implements these conversions as the complexity of
2484-446: The page loads. In the early 2000s, all major web browsers except Internet Explorer let users block unwanted pop-ups almost completely. In 2004, Microsoft released Windows XP SP2, which added pop-up blocking to Internet Explorer. Most modern browsers provide pop-up blocking tools; third-party tools add other features, such as ad filtering . Users of websites and web applications continuously experience unwanted pop-up ads throughout
2538-437: The rules can be mistaken for inconsistency. For example, when adding a number to a string, the number will be cast to a string before performing concatenation, but when subtracting a number from a string, the string is cast to a number before performing subtraction. Often also mentioned is {} + [] resulting in 0 (number). This is misleading: the {} is interpreted as an empty code block instead of an empty object, and
2592-436: The status of upcoming features individually. The current JavaScript ecosystem has many libraries and frameworks , established programming practices, and substantial usage of JavaScript outside of web browsers. Plus, with the rise of single-page applications and other JavaScript-heavy websites, several transpilers have been created to aid the development process. "JavaScript" is a trademark of Oracle Corporation in
2646-506: The use of JavaScript engines is not limited to browsers; for example, the V8 engine is a core component of the Node.js runtime system . A JavaScript engine must be embedded within a runtime system (such as a web browser or a standalone system) to enable scripts to interact with the broader environment. The runtime system includes the necessary APIs for input/output operations, such as networking , storage , and graphics , and provides
2700-428: The whole computer screen, many users would immediately close the pop-up ads that appeared over a site without looking at them. Pop-under ads do not immediately impede the view of content, but remain unnoticed until the user closes or minimizes the main browser window. A pop-under ad involves two JavaScript functions introduced in 1995 with the Netscape 2.0b3 browser. Modern web publishers and advertisers use it to create
2754-399: Was a "language for the masses", "to help nonprogrammers create dynamic, interactive Web sites ". Netscape management soon decided that the best option was for Eich to devise a new language, with syntax similar to Java and less like Scheme or other extant scripting languages . Although the new language and its interpreter implementation were called LiveScript when first shipped as part of
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#17328020827222808-493: Was distributed under a "ShonenWare" license. Under the license it was free to use. Lemmon would consider users purchasing and listening to a Shonen Knife CD would be sufficient to register that user. The first public release of Proxomitron (Naoko 2) was in 1999 as a download via Simtel . Releases that followed were all named "Naoko" (for Naoko Yamano ) followed by a release number. (Release versions were 3, 3(b), 4.0, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5.) The May 2003 release of Naoko 4.5
2862-468: Was followed very quickly by the removal of the program's web site and Lemmon's declared termination of continued development of Proxomitron. A subsequent release, however, was made in June 2003, primarily to revert a new behavior related to remote proxy connections that had been designed into the May version. After the release of Naoko 4.5 (June), development was permanently discontinued and the official site had
2916-404: Was not designed to be user-friendly. Because of these complications, the program can be difficult to customize for novice or non-technical users. A default set of filters is included with the program; advanced filters and filter sets written by experienced users are also available online. (See external links.) The following items are the basic applications and features of the program: The program
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