[robbrown451]

They aren't really unrelated as they explicitly made JavaScript syntax "look like Java" which in turn "looked like C and C++".

This also helped with their LiveConnect stuff which allowed the two to talk to each other. I think it was a huge selling point that the languages felt similar, and felt comfortable to those who already knew C and/or C++.

In those days I was doing a lot of pasting from one language to the other, and editing "int" into "var" etc. Java and JavaScript were similar in that, compared to C and C++, you just sort of forgot about pointers and pointer syntax. (even though they still sort of existed).

They sure seemed to me to be related. This is obviously most true for light use of the languages (JavaScript especially was designed for very light use)