Annotated ECMAScript 5.1
‟Ex igne vita”
‟Ex igne vita”
Throughout:
In the Edition 3 specification the meaning of phrases such as “as
if by the expression new
Array()” are subject to misinterpretation. In the
Edition 5 specification text for all internal references and
invocations of standard built-in objects and methods has been
clarified by making it explicit that the intent is that the actual
built-in object is to be used rather than the current dynamic value
of the correspondingly named property.
11.8.2, 11.8.3, 11.8.5: ECMAScript generally uses a left to right evaluation order, however the Edition 3 specification language for the > and <= operators resulted in a partial right to left order. The specification has been corrected for these operators such that it now specifies a full left to right evaluation order. However, this change of order is potentially observable if side-effects occur during the evaluation process.
11.1.4: Edition 5 clarifies the fact that a trailing comma at the end of an ArrayInitialiser does not add to the length of the array. This is not a semantic change from Edition 3 but some implementations may have previously misinterpreted this.
11.2.3: Edition 5 reverses the order of steps 2 and 3 of the algorithm. The original order as specified in Editions 1 through 3 was incorrectly specified such that side-effects of evaluating Arguments could affect the result of evaluating MemberExpression.
12.4:
In Edition 3, an object is created, as if by new
Object()to serve as the scope for resolving the name of
the exception parameter passed to a catch
clause of a try
statement. If the actual exception object is a function and it is
called from within the catch
clause, the scope object will be passed as the this value of
the call. The body of the function can then define new properties on
its this value and those property names become visible
identifiers bindings within the scope of the catch clause
after the function returns. In Edition 5, when an exception
parameter is called as a function, undefined is passed as the
this value.
13:.
In Edition 3, the algorithm for the production FunctionExpression
with an Identifier
adds an object created as if by new
Object() to the scope chain to serve as a scope for
looking up the name of the function. The identifier resolution rules
(10.1.4 in Edition 3) when applied to such an object will, if
necessary, follow the object’s prototype chain when attempting to
resolve an identifier. This means all the properties of
Object.prototype are visible as identifiers within that scope. In
practice most implementations of Edition 3 have not implemented this
semantics. Edition 5 changes the specified semantics by using a
Declarative Environment Record to bind the name of the function.
14:.
In Edition 3, the algorithm for the production SourceElements : SourceElements
SourceElement did not correctly propagate statement
result values in the same manner as Block.
This could result in the eval function producing an incorrect result when evaluating a Program
text. In practice most implementations of Edition 3 have implemented
the correct propagation rather than what was specified in Edition 3.
15.10.6: RegExp.prototype is now a RegExp object rather than an instance of Object. The value of its [[Class]] internal property which is observable using Object.prototype.toString is now “RegExp” rather than “Object”.