diff --git a/src/runtime/javascript/minibar/minibar.js b/src/runtime/javascript/minibar/minibar.js
index c1498c801..98049c96e 100644
--- a/src/runtime/javascript/minibar/minibar.js
+++ b/src/runtime/javascript/minibar/minibar.js
@@ -15,6 +15,11 @@ complete_output=get_completions()
 show_completions(complete_output)
 */
 
+// For backward compatibility:
+function start_minibar(server,opts,target) {
+    return new Minibar(server,opts,target);
+}
+
 function Minibar(server,opts,target) {
     // Typically called when the HTML document is loaded