The JavaScript language specification is managed by ECMA, a non-profit organization that maintains a standardized version of this language known as ECMAScript.

You may have heard the terms "ES5" and "ES6" in the context of JavaScript language versions. These refer to the 5th and 6th editions of the ECMAScript standard respectively. The ES5 version of the language, which was released in 2009, is currently considered a baseline implementation, with wide support across desktop and mobile devices. ES6, released in 2015, introduces significant improvements over ES5, and remains backwards compatible with it. Since the release of ES6, ECMA has been making yearly revisions to the standard, which continue to improve and modernize the language. In many contexts, the "ES6" denomination is loosely used for all the improvements brought to the language after ES5, and not strictly those from the ES6 specification.

How can web browsers keep up with a language that evolves so rapidly? They actually can't and don't! Features that were introduced in ES6 and later updates to the standard aren't guaranteed to be implemented in all browsers. To avoid code failing to run due to missing language features, modern JavaScript frameworks rely on a technique called transpiling, which converts modern JavaScript source code into functionally equivalent ES5 code that runs everywhere. Thanks to transpiling, JavaScript developers don't have to worry about what parts of the JavaScript language browsers support.