Before you continue our Academic Tutorial E4X, you should have a basic understanding of the following:

HTML

JavaScript

XML

JavaScript = ECMAScript

ECMAScript is the official name for JavaScript.

ECMAScript is the same as JavaScript.

ECMA (The European Computer Manufacturers Association) is the organization standardizing JavaScript.

E4X means "ECMAScript For XML". It is a standard extension to ECMAScript.

So in real life E4X means "JavaScript for XML".

E4X is an official JavaScript standard that adds direct support for XML.

With E4X, you can declare an XML object variable the same way as you declare a Date or an Array object variable:

E4X makes scripting for XML with JavaScript very easy and simple.

ECMA-262 (JavaScript 1.3) was standardized in December 1999.

E4X is an extension of JavaScript that adds direct support for XML.

ECMA-357 (E4X) was standardized in June 2004.