Namespaces as Sugar (was: complexity tax)

[Brendan Eich]

On May 26, 2008, at 10:34 AM, Mark S. Miller wrote:

> On Mon, May 26, 2008 at 10:22 AM, Brendan Eich  
> <brendan at mozilla.org> wrote:
>> Why not give them both better syntax and better semantics?
>
> A wonderful idea! I eagerly await such a proposal.

Was that mere snarkiness?

The ES4 proposal has unqualified import. It has backward  
compatibility in the sense that it does not change the interpretation  
of obj["ns::prop"] or obj["ns/prop"]. If it has other problems (it  
surely does -- we're working on specifying it fully, and implementing  
it in the RI -- both of which help find problems), then please point  
them out. Or make an alternative proposal. All I am suggesting is  
that any solution (a) not reinterpret existing property names, and  
(b) support unqualified import in osteele's sense of the phrase.

/be