[wslh]

JavaScript was used for very simple things when it was launched. Most pages used it for modifying button images when you hover or press a button, and for handling some web form operations. As others say JavaScript was very confusing, a programming language that was launched with Java in its name and to fill gaps in HTML limitations but there was no clear direction towards web app programming. Another confusing aspect was that Java was created for this purpose (to create web apps via applets).

We should not forget Macromedia Flash, it was a very interesting option offering a better programming language but it was not an standard with an open source reference.

[egypturnash]

Actionscript 1: a simple little language that could only be entered via a huge dropdown menu

Actionscript 2: basically Javascript, when I was writing stuff in AS2 my O'Riley pocket JS guide saw a lot more use than the pocket AS guide.

Actionscript 3: completely ECMAScript4, Macromedia/Adobe was on the standards board for that, but then Mozilla went a different way, I think, it is a giant mess [1]. Also AS3 was a lot more verbose than AS2 which did not endear it to the people with one foot in art and one in programming that was a large part of Flash's user base.

1: https://auth0.com/blog/the-real-story-behind-es4/

[wslh]

In conjuntion with AS Flash offered animation capabilities that were impossible at the time. This animations are from 2000: http://swain.webframe.org/zeek.html

[bdefore]

As your source indicates, it was Microsoft that stonewalled ES4. By the time Adobe agreed to let it die, it was a capitulation that they had been vetoed.

[type0]

Flash embraced ActionScript (ECMAscript 4) when no-one did and ultimately it also killed it. This is like some tree that allows the strangler fig to grow on it.

[agumonkey]

I remember macromedia Dreamweaver magic rollover templates.