On Jul 5, 2015, at 10:56 PM, Benjamin Gruenbaum wrote:

> So, following work on RegExp.escape [1] I found out that implementations may 
> extend the regular expression grammar in JavaScript [2]. However, when asking 
> esdiscuss and Stack Overflow about it [2][3] it doesn't look like any 
> implementations currently do so (*).

Actually, almost all ES implementation extend/modify the ES RegExp pattern 
grammar.  Annex B.1.4 
http://ecma-international.org/ecma-262/6.0/#sec-regular-expressions-patterns 
attempts to describe the interoperable RegExp extensions that are common among 
browsers.

> 
> Can we please forbid implementations from extending the regular expression 
> syntax? It seems like this could cause compatibility issues between 
> implementations anyway. We have subclassable RegExp with hooks and symbols in 
> place and implementations that want to provide an extended RegExp can 
> subclass RegExp or propose an extension to the language itself.

Can't do it, won't work.   If followed, a general probation of syntactic 
extensions, whether for the entire language or just for RegExp patterns,would 
block all future language innovation.  But, it practice it would just be 
ignored. 

We (think) we can get away with a few very targeted and well motivated 
extension prohibitions such a those listed in 
http://ecma-international.org/ecma-262/6.0/#sec-forbidden-extensions but broad 
a "no new syntax" prohibition would hold and isn't desirable.

Allen


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