Episode 85: TC39: How the JavaScript Sausage Gets Made with Mark Cohen
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Design by committee usually has a bad connotation but when it comes to specifying JavaScript, making sure a new feature doesn’t break the internet is just too big a task for one person. Today on the show we invite Mark Cohen to talk about what it is like being on the board of TC39, the institution which standardizes the JavaScript language under the ECMAScript specification. We kick things off with some history behind TC39 before diving right into some of the debates around how to implement new features within the committee and the larger JavaScript community. From there, Mark weighs in on the main goal of TC39, that of ensuring cross-browser functionality, talking about why it is such a challenging but necessary project. We also speak to Mark about their current focus of championing the move toward pattern matching in JavaScript, getting into some of the ideas being bounced around as far as syntax and all the possibilities this feature will enable. Our discussion doesn’t end there though, as we pick Mark’s brain about the processes the TC39 follows for seeing a proposal through from idea to implementation, and also hear about how they adhere to the ‘don’t break the web’ principle. So for all this and more on Enjoy the Vue, tune in today!
Key Points From This Episode:
Tweetables:
“The primary charter of the committee is to make sure that things work across browsers.” — @mpcsh_ [0:22:12]
“Companies still want control of the web and control of the users of the web, right? But there's a lot more protection now. One of the big invisible ways that this happens is a tool that the committee maintains called test 262.” — @mpcsh_ [0:25:30]
“I'm championing the pattern matching proposal.” — @mpcsh_ [0:27:29]
“So that phrase, 'don't break the web’ is a common refrain among the committee. It basically reflects our infinite backwards compatibility mandate.” — @mpcsh_ [0:46:33]
Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:
TC39 resources:
Proposals:
Ecma International
test262, TC39 (GitHub)
Walrus Operator
What is Rust's turbofish?, David Pedersen
State of JS
SmooshGate FAQs, Mathias Bynens
Where to Find Mark Online:
This weeks picks:
Mark Cohen
Alex
Ari
Oscar
Tessa
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