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Sunsetting the JavaScript Standard

by Mathias Bynens in WHATWG

Back in 2012, the WHATWG set out to document the differences between the ECMAScript 5.1 specification and the compatibility and interoperability requirements for ECMAScript implementations in web browsers.

A specification draft was first published under the name of “Web ECMAScript”, but later renamed to just “JavaScript”. As such, the JavaScript Standard was born.

Our work on the JavaScript Standard consisted of three tasks:

  1. figuring out implementation differences for various non-standard features;
  2. filing browser bugs to get implementations to converge;
  3. and finally writing specification text for the common or most sensible behavior, hoping it would one day be upstreamed to ECMAScript.

That day has come.

Some remaining web compatibility issues are tracked in the repository for the ECMAScript spec, which javascript.spec.whatwg.org now redirects to. The rest of the contents of the JavaScript Standard have been upstreamed into ECMAScript, Annex B.

This is good news for everyone. Thanks to the JavaScript Standard, browser behavior has converged, increasing interoperability; non-standard features got well-defined and standardized; and the ECMAScript standard more closely matches reality.

Highlights:

So long, JavaScript Standard, and thanks for all the fish!

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