I just had the chance to review the copyright page of the 5th edition of my JavaScript book and noticed that its publication date (August, 2006) is exactly 10 years after the August, 1996 publication date of the first, "beta" edition of the book.
Thus inspired, I put together the following timeline of the JavaScript language, the client-side DOM, and of JavaScript: The Definitive Guide. I'm sure it is incomplete: additions in the comments are very welcome.
1996 March
JavaScript 1.0 released in Netscape 2.
document.write() and form manipulation are possible1996 August
JavaScript: The Definitive Guide beta edition
1996 August
JavaScript 1.1 released in Netscape 3.
Adds array support to the core language.
Image rollovers become possible.1996 August
IE 3 released: JScript 1.0/2.0
1997 January
JavaScript: The Definitive Guide second edition
1997 June
ECMAScript v1 standardized
1997 June
JavaScript 1.2 released in Netscape 4.
Adds switch and regexps to the language.
<layer> tag supports rudimentary DHTML1997 October
IE 4 released: JScript 3.0
DOM based on document.all[] allows DHTML1998 June
JavaScript: The Definitive Guide third edition
1998 June
ECMAScript v2 standardized (minor corrections only)
1998 October
JavaScript 1.3 released in Netscape 4.5.
Compliant with ECMAScript v11998 October
W3C publishes DOM Level 1 standard
1999 March
IE 5 released: JScript 5.0
1999 December
ECMAScript v3 standardized
2000 July
IE 5.5 released: JScript 5.5
partial support for W3C DOM2000 November
JavaScript 1.5 released in Netscape 6.
Compliant with ECMAScript v3
Basic support for DOM, <layer> tag abandoned2000 November
W3C publishes DOM Level 2 standard
2001 October
IE 6.0 released: JScript 5.5
substantial support for W3C DOM, except Events module2002 January
JavaScript: The Definitive Guide fourth edition
2002 June
Mozilla 1.0 released
2004 November
Firefox 1.0 released
2005 February
Jesse James Garrett coins the term Ajax
2005 July
DOM Scripting Task Force forms,
publishes The JavaScript Manifesto2006 August
JavaScript: The Definitive Guide fifth edition
Two final notes. First, Amazon is still saying that they'll be shipping copies of the book around August 1st. I can say for sure that the book won't be ready by the beginning of August. I don't actually know much about the printing process, but it seems reasonable to suppose that the book will be available later in August.
Second, I've lost my only copy of the 10-year old Beta edition of my book. If you have a copy, in reasonable condition, with the word "BETA" stamped across the rhino, and are would like to swap it for a brand-new copy (signed, if you want) of the 5th edition, send me an e-mail and we'll arrange a trade.
Update: comments closed. Comment spammers have discovered this entry.
10 years already! ;-)
Congratulations for this new edition.