Subj : Re: Seeking clarification on effect of literal vs. object syntax.
To   : netscape.public.mozilla.jseng
From : Brendan Eich
Date : Fri Aug 26 2005 03:07 pm

Brendan Eich wrote:

> I said, and ECMA specifies, that the array initialiser [1, 2, 3] is 
> shorthand for new Array(1, 2, 3).

But note that new Array(1) makes an array of length 1 with no elements 
(index-identified properties) defined, so [1] is not shorthand for new 
Array(1).  This uniformity is another benefit of array initialisers, 
beyond the conciseness I called "sugar" recently.

You might call the ECMA-standardized special case where Array is called 
with one numeric argument that fits into the domain of the 'length' 
property a bug -- I'd agree, but it's too late to fix that.  And anyway, 
even if we could remove that special case, array initialisers rule 
because they're shorter and sweeter ;-).

/be

.