[] on String [Was: Binary data (ByteArray/ByteVector) proposal on public-script-coord]

[P T Withington]

On 2009-11-06, at 13:47, Brendan Eich wrote:

> On Nov 6, 2009, at 5:43 AM, P T Withington wrote:

[...]

>> But I also regret String not being and Array.
>
> I agree with Maciej that having mutating methods be no-ops or  
> throwers strongly suggests we not mix Array and String directly.  
> Being able to apply non-mutating Array methods to string (primitive,  
> even) arguments is ok. Splitting a string into an Array and  
> mutating, then joining -- very ok. But I don't see why you want  
> String to *be* (is-a) an Array.

It must be my Lisp/Dylan upbringing bleeding through:  http://bit.ly/4DEIjL

>> Others must have too, because at one point I'm sure there was a  
>> proposal to make [] on string mean charAt?
>
> David Flanagan beat me to it: in ES5 and most browsers.

And I thanked him privately.  I thought it was, but failed to make the  
conceptual leap from [] to [[GetOwnProperty]] when searching in the  
spec.