You make it sound like they were incompetent, lazy or evil. Or perhaps I misunderstood you, sorry if so.
But the fact is, they did think a lot about using other languages on the web, and about proper ILs as well. The fact is, there has been no good way to do either, if you want a standards-based platform with multiple compatible implementations.
You can take some existing IL like Java bytecode, but (1) that stuff is patented, and (2) there is no hope of cross-vendor agreement on what that IL should be, and all of them have various issues anyhow (for example, Java and .NET bytecode were designed with static languages in mind).
JavaScript is winning simply because it's there, it works, and everybody supports it. Yes, it has frustrating limitations, but it's hard to see a practical alternative. We will simply need to overcome those limitations - and that is possible.
That was perhaps a little harsh in the phrasing; I wasn't really implying any of those things. I think I am saying that this appears to have been a blind spot on the part of the web standardization crowd and the browser makers. Maybe I'm entirely wrong though, and there were efforts that simply hit hard problems, as you say.
I'd never heard of any discussions around determining a proper IL, though; if you can, a link so relevant MLs and such would be most appreciated.
But the fact is, they did think a lot about using other languages on the web, and about proper ILs as well. The fact is, there has been no good way to do either, if you want a standards-based platform with multiple compatible implementations.
You can take some existing IL like Java bytecode, but (1) that stuff is patented, and (2) there is no hope of cross-vendor agreement on what that IL should be, and all of them have various issues anyhow (for example, Java and .NET bytecode were designed with static languages in mind).
JavaScript is winning simply because it's there, it works, and everybody supports it. Yes, it has frustrating limitations, but it's hard to see a practical alternative. We will simply need to overcome those limitations - and that is possible.