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ECMAScript Regrets

Abstract

JavaScript got implemented and shipped in browsers in a rush; not your textbook way to evaluate a product before handing it off to your customers. Websites started to be written against the JavaScript that was actually shipped in browsers, not some ideal language we wish we had. In order to avoid "breaking the web", the Bad Parts of the language not only weren't removed, but had to be standardized to make sure websites behaved the same way in different browsers.

The ECMAScript Regrets project is an attempt at listing all of these things we wish were removed from the JavaScript language, but can't be because it would break the web.

In this talk, I'll walk through several of these "regrets" and explain what we can do as developers to avoid them as well as how ECMAScript 5 and 6 help to work around them. From beginners who are fighting against the language to compile-to-JS language designers who don't want to reiterate mistakes from the past, everyone should be learning something.

Speaker Bio

David Bruant

David is a web developer. Passionate about the web ecosystem in general; web browsers, websites and JavaScript in particular. Also passionate about education, he occasionally contributes to the JavaScript section of MDN, do company training and teaches people around him.