All ECMAScript objects have a toLocaleString method, originally defined in Object.prototype and overridden in Array, Number, and Date. The parameter list of this method has changed over time:
- In ES3 and ES5, the methods don't take parameters, but there's a note "The first parameter to this function is likely to be used in a future version of this standard; it is recommended that implementations do not use this parameter position for anything else." - In ECMA-402 first edition, we respecified Number.prototype.toLocaleString and Date.prototype.toLocaleString to take two parameters (locales and objects). - In the current draft of ES6, the specs for these two methods are changed to reserve the two parameter positions and to require that they're either used as specified in ECMA-402 or not used for any other purpose. That leaves the toLocaleString methods in Object and Array somewhat incompatible with Number and Date: Their specs still reserve the first parameter, but not the second. And Array.prototype.toLocaleString, which calls toLocaleString on all elements of an array, does not pass on any arguments, thus breaking localization for any Number or Date objects the array may contain. I can see the following ways to resolve this: - Remove the notes about the first parameter on toLocaleString in Object and Array, and accept that they will not be properly localized. Most compatible, least localization friendly. - Reserve the first two parameters on toLocaleString in Object and Array, and specify that they must always be ignored in Object, and always be passed on to the toLocaleString calls on the elements in Array. One issue here is that the toLocaleString methods on Number and Date throw exceptions if provided invalid arguments, so a call to Array.prototype.toLocaleString can result in an exception if a Number or Date instance is present in the array while completing normally otherwise. - Reserve the first two parameters on toLocaleString in Object and Array, allow a future version of ECMA-402 to specify how to use them, and require that the parameters are ignored in ES6 implementations that don't also implement a version of ECMA-402 specifying their use. The next version of ECMA-402 could then require a stricter implementation that always checks locales and options.localeMatcher for validity, even when called on an empty array or object, and passes the parameters on to an array's elements. Thoughts about the best way to proceed? Thanks, Norbert _______________________________________________ es-discuss mailing list es-discuss@mozilla.org https://mail.mozilla.org/listinfo/es-discuss
