How much of this stuff is coming from real-world need, and how much from ideas about how programming ought to be? I have a strong impression of the latter.
There is a revealing phrase in the blog post linked to elsewhere in this thread (http://ejohn.org/blog/ecmascript-5-objects-and-properties/): "Property descriptors (and their associated methods) is probably the most important new feature of ECMAScript 5. It gives developers the ability to have fine-grained control of their objects, prevent undesired tinkering, and maintaining a unified web-compatible API." [italics added]
"Undesired tinkering" is the very essence of what made the web the web. These perennial efforts to add restrictions, control, lock-down, etc., seem to me rooted in a failure to understand this. Had these people been in control all along, there would never had been a web in the first place.
Every time I encounter this mentality, I refresh myself by re-reading Adam Bosworth's classic polemic in favor of the simple and sloppy: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=447086
There is a revealing phrase in the blog post linked to elsewhere in this thread (http://ejohn.org/blog/ecmascript-5-objects-and-properties/): "Property descriptors (and their associated methods) is probably the most important new feature of ECMAScript 5. It gives developers the ability to have fine-grained control of their objects, prevent undesired tinkering, and maintaining a unified web-compatible API." [italics added]
"Undesired tinkering" is the very essence of what made the web the web. These perennial efforts to add restrictions, control, lock-down, etc., seem to me rooted in a failure to understand this. Had these people been in control all along, there would never had been a web in the first place.
Every time I encounter this mentality, I refresh myself by re-reading Adam Bosworth's classic polemic in favor of the simple and sloppy: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=447086