An alternative to JS?

I’ve read through the guideline, well as far as I felt relevent, and did do a search using “alternative languages” as well as “other languages” and couldn’t find what I was looking for so here it is. I would like to mention this isn’t a “code thread” per se, but meant for discussion of both questions.

[B]1. Are there any alternative client side scripting languages that can create the same results as Java(J)Script (henceforth JS)?[/B]

I know of VBScript, but I’m searching for a multi-platform solution. Has anyone attempted this using Perl, Python or CGI? I know that these are primarily server side scripts, but I have read briefly that it is possible to write client side applications to emulate client side scripts. Can someone explain, here or through reference, the pros and cons of such an implementation and/or provide some “benchmarking” for page loading?

[B]2. What is the proper interpretation of Ecma’s E4X?[/B]

I am trying to determine if [URL=http://www.ecma-international.org/news/ECMA%20E4X%20Final%20Final%20Web.htm]E4X[/URL] is simply another standard (specification) like Ecma-266 or if it’s an actual scripting language. Specifically, this excerpt from the above article:

[QUOTE]

Ecma International (Ecma) is completing extensions to the widely used ECMAScript standard, currently being updated to its 4th Edition. The enhancements known as E4X (ECMAScript for XML) standardize the syntax and semantics of a general-purpose, cross-platform, vendor-neutral set of programming language extensions adding native XML support in ECMAScript.

[/QUOTE]

What is confusing me, thus the question, is “set of programming language extensions.” How is this expression interpreted? Is this an actual language or merely an extension of the standard? Especially in regards to standardizing “[I]the syntax and semantics of a general-purpose, cross-platform, vendor-neutral[/I] set.” If Ecma [URL=http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/index.html]doesn’t implement[/URL] their own standards, how is it that E4X be cross-platform AND vendor neutral? After all JS is an implementation of Ecma-266, but both [URL=http://www.mozilla.org/js/language/es4/]Netscape[/URL] and MicroSoft are vendors. Doesn’t this make this quoted block a contradiction?

Now I haven’t read the Netscape proposal, just found the link, but wouldn’t it make sense for Ecma to create the scripting language adhering to W3 recommendations, much the same way that W3 wrote XSLT? This way the language would be standardized for all browsers, thus leaving it to vendors and open source to integrate parsers into their browsers? Is this what Ecma is implying with the above quote?

Hopefully now you can understand my confusion and perhaps members here can suggest the correct interpretations or even additional sources.

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