ECMAScript Modularity SubGroup Meeting
Redmond, 25th March 1999

Summary of Friday's meeting

• agreements

• disagreements

• further work agreed

• trial implementations

Agreements

• Users: Joe Public and Script Hackers

• smooth development path for existing script[er]s

• built-in reflection considered important

• to remain a dynamically typed language at the core

• programming in the large demands encapsulation

• heterogenous client base (old/new, small/big)

• continued support for externally defined objects

Technical Agreements

• Single inheritance of implementation

• interfaces - details to be decided

• Syntax

  class name extends name
  

• packages as syntactic units, not bound to files

• class contents: instance fields, instance methods, class fields, class methods, getters/setters (special syntax)

• static initialization code

• provisional use of x : T etc. for types

• qualified field names, e.g. x.P::f

Disagreements

• necessity for private/protected

• necessity for package scope

Further work agreed

• syntax of packages

• boundaries of packages

• anonynous packages

• versions and exports

• details for static initialization code

• stream model, its compatibility with main stream compilation (Action: Chris and Waldemar)

• optional arguments, compatibility with old code

• relationship of old style objects to new style objects (i.e. prototypes etc.)