Initializer expression on for-in syntax subject

[Brendan Eich]

Peter van der Zee wrote:
>
> Which browsers currently don't accept this construct? I wasn't even 
> aware that JSC didn't support it at some point.
>

Did anyone say JSC lacked support? I think KJS followed ES3, and this 
was in the ES1 grammar, so I doubt it was never supported.

> Minifiers might rely on this construct. And perhaps some js1k entries, 
> if that matters anything.
>

Extremely doubtful. It doesn't save anything. A minifier cannot count on 
the loop iterating 0 times.

> Why is there a desire for banishment anyways? Only lack of consistency 
> compared to not using the var keyword,
>

This is only about the 'var' case. The initialiser in 'for (var x = y in 
z)' is due only to reuse of the wrong grammar nonterminal in ES1, based 
on JScript de-facto non-standard behavior. It is a wart and a pain to 
implement. We don't expect it to be hard to remove, unlike other warts, 
but we'll find out.

> or was there a bigger problem with this? The thread comes out of the 
> blue to me so I probably missed a prior discussion :)
>

ES6 revised the old grammar dating from ES1, breaking for(var x = y in 
z). That was intentional and discussed in past meetings and threads.

/be