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by btilly 5172 days ago
Here is what you're missing.

Language lawyering is fine and dandy when you know exactly which compiler will be used and you know exactly how it works.

But on the web that isn't the case. You can write code, but you have no control over what browsers, past, present and future, it will get run on. And it is your responsibility to make that work. According to the spec, you may be right. But in practice you're the one who is wrong, because you're the one whose job it is to make your code work across browsers and future versions of the spec.
3 comments
mattbriggs 5172 days ago
Crockford is releasing a tool which is compatible with his opinions, not with JavaScript. All browsers execute that code fine, present and past, and at least for the next decade or so.

Crockford can be an arrogant ass about this stuff, that's why jshint exists, because not agreeing with Crockford does not mean bad JavaScript, no matter what he would have you believe

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pronik 5165 days ago
It's about JSMin, not JSLint. Crockford has actually several products ;-) And JSMin is IMHO not really opinionated.
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isntitvacant 5172 days ago
In this case, it's not language lawyering. All JavaScript environments "do the right thing" with regards to ASI -- it works in all target environments as of the present day. JSMin is not a target environment, it is a minifier that happens to express some strongly-held opinions of its author.

That said, it's hard to program to a spec that does not (officially) exist yet, and doubly so if there's not clear "opt-in/out" path for future versions. Since, as a developer, I can't control what the committee adds or removes from the spec, or what they might break, I can only do the best I can with the language as it is -- not breaking existing code in future versions of the language is the committee's job.

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pepve 5172 days ago
If JSMin is not among their target environments, they should not use it.
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jlarocco 5172 days ago
The code in question does work across browsers.

Arguing about future version of the spec is silly. For all we know the next Javascript spec turns it into a Lisp, and 100% of existing code is broken.

JSMin is breaking working, spec compliant, cross browser compatible code. How is that not broken?

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