September 18, 1995: Netscape 2.0 released with Java and Javascript support. This has the DOM level 0-. Java is marketed as the language for "Big boy apps" and javascript is merely the scripting "glue" that lets java access DOM level 0, which is limited really only to reading form data and changing the .src attribute on some images. [1]
1998: "The initial DOM standard, known as "DOM Level 1," was recommended by W3C in late 1998. About the same time, Internet Explorer 5.0 shipped with limited support for DOM Level 1. DOM Level 1 provided a complete model for an entire HTML or XML document, including means to change any portion of the document. Non-conformant browsers such as Internet Explorer 4.x and Netscape 4.x were still widely used as late as 2000." [2]
August 2001: Internet Explorer 6 is released with still " and partial support of DOM level 1" [3]
in the same month (August 2001) Netscape 6.1 is released [1]
netscape 6 was the first Netscape browser based on the "Mozilla Application Suite", what Firefox is based on today. It's hard to find detailed information on this, but I would also guess that Netscape 6 had "Partial Support" for DOM Level 1
February 6, 2002 (6 months later): Java's J2SE 1.4 runtime is released, and has, again, Partial DOM level 1 support, along with the ability to directly manipulate the page that an applet is on without using Javascript as "glue"
Which of course is the whole point of the DOM, as a "language agnostic" API that needed to be used from not just Javascript, but Java, C++, and VBScript and whatever other language.
It was, to be fair, shitty, but we are talking, at this time, 2002, people are using IE6 and netscape 4 still. Browser support for DOM matured around 2006, and so did Java and its applets, keeping pace right along with the browsers. People generally don't really understand that Java and Javascript are two seperate languages. It's all just "Java, that really shitty slow web language"
September 18, 1995: Netscape 2.0 released with Java and Javascript support. This has the DOM level 0-. Java is marketed as the language for "Big boy apps" and javascript is merely the scripting "glue" that lets java access DOM level 0, which is limited really only to reading form data and changing the .src attribute on some images. [1]
1998: "The initial DOM standard, known as "DOM Level 1," was recommended by W3C in late 1998. About the same time, Internet Explorer 5.0 shipped with limited support for DOM Level 1. DOM Level 1 provided a complete model for an entire HTML or XML document, including means to change any portion of the document. Non-conformant browsers such as Internet Explorer 4.x and Netscape 4.x were still widely used as late as 2000." [2]
August 2001: Internet Explorer 6 is released with still " and partial support of DOM level 1" [3]
in the same month (August 2001) Netscape 6.1 is released [1] netscape 6 was the first Netscape browser based on the "Mozilla Application Suite", what Firefox is based on today. It's hard to find detailed information on this, but I would also guess that Netscape 6 had "Partial Support" for DOM Level 1
February 6, 2002 (6 months later): Java's J2SE 1.4 runtime is released, and has, again, Partial DOM level 1 support, along with the ability to directly manipulate the page that an applet is on without using Javascript as "glue"
Which of course is the whole point of the DOM, as a "language agnostic" API that needed to be used from not just Javascript, but Java, C++, and VBScript and whatever other language.
It was, to be fair, shitty, but we are talking, at this time, 2002, people are using IE6 and netscape 4 still. Browser support for DOM matured around 2006, and so did Java and its applets, keeping pace right along with the browsers. People generally don't really understand that Java and Javascript are two seperate languages. It's all just "Java, that really shitty slow web language"
[1]:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netscape_(web_browser)#Release_...
[2]:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Document_Object_Model#Intermedi...
[3]:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Explorer_6