This week brought the death of ECMAScript 4 as we know it, a preview release of YUI 3, a behind the scenes look at NBC's online olympics coverage, and did we mention ECMAScript 4 (it was worth mentioning twice)?

FEATURED: ECMAScript 4 Halted

Web standards took an interesting turn this week as ECMAScript 4 (ES 4) was halted and ECMAScript 3.1 was decided to be the next specification. This is directly related to both JavaScript and ActionScript. In short, the next version of JavaScript will simply be a small upgrade as opposed to a total overhaul. In addition, the next version of JavaScript will not be based on the same specification as ActionScript.

All of the big players (Microsoft, Google, Adobe, Mozilla, Yahoo, Opera) were involved in the discussion, and despite the new name for the upcoming specification being Harmony, it has been less than harmonious to get to this point.

Brendan Eich's Announcement: ECMAScript Harmony

Open at Adobe: Standards, ECMAScript and representing the past

John Resig (Mozilla): ECMAScript Harmony

Mike Chambers (Adobe): ActionScript 3 and ECMAScript 4

YUI 3 Preview Release 1

Yahoo announced this week the first preview release of YUI 3.0. The goals of this version are outlined in the post and can be summed up: lighter, faster, more consistent, more powerful, and more securable.

YUI Blog: YUI 3.0 Preview Release 1

SourceForge: Download YUI 3 PR1

YUI: YUI 3 PR1 Documentation

Cairngorm Committee Representatives Needed

Steven Webster posted a request for people interested in being a part of the Cairngorm Committee which will be essential for its future now that Adobe has open-sourced this framework for Flex.

Steven Webster: Call for Representatives on the Cairngorm Committee

Behind the Scenes at NBCOlympics.com

Tim Heuer posted a video from Robert Scoble (with Microsoft's Eric Schmidt) that goes behind the NBC Olympics site and some of its implementation. This gives a great view into what goes into an enormous project like this.

Tim Heuer: Behind the Scenes of NBCOlympics.com

Useful JavaFX Screencast for Beginners

Adam Bien is one of many people who posted useful tutorials and information for JavaFX this week. It is great to see great information coming out to help new JavaFX developers.

Adam Bien: TimeLines, KeyFrames, Tweening - Useful JavaFX Screencast For Beginners

Read more from David Tucker.