Subj : Re: Seeking clarification on effect of literal vs. object syntax.
To   : netscape.public.mozilla.jseng
From : Christopher M. Balz
Date : Fri Aug 26 2005 07:06 pm

The usage is in ECMA-262, 3rd Edition -- this is the
one available (or most available) from the ECMA site.
(See below).  The spec does use 'initialiser' often,
though.  Usage of 'literal' is also in the 4th edition
of the O'Reilly JS book, which imho is the best book
on JavaScript. 

ECMA-262, 3rd Edition, Page 158:

ArrayLiteral : See 11.1.4
[ Elisionopt ]
[ ElementList ]
[ ElementList , Elisionopt ]

ObjectLiteral : See 11.1.5
{ }
{ PropertyNameAndValueList }


--- Brendan Eich <brendan@meer.net> wrote:

> Christopher M. Balz wrote:
> 
>  >Thanks -- perfectly clear now.
>  >
>  >The reason I wondered is that I was not sure what
> the
>  >word 'literal' meant in context.  In other words,
> I
>  >was not sure if the 'literal' form of an array,
> etc.
>  >was like a String literal, which is a primitive
>  >(passed by value, not by reference, etc).  Thus I
>  >wondered if this supposed 'primitive' was used to
>  >construct an object on the fly.
>  >
> 
> Do we use literal somewhere in our docs?  In ECMA
> TG1 we agreed to call 
> these things "initialisers" (UK spelling) to avoid
> confusion, and I 
> think that's still a good idea.  So help us stamp
> out abuse of the 
> "literal" term.
> 
> /be
> 


Christopher M Balz
http://treelogic-swe.com
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chris@treelogic-swe.com
 
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   - from "The Crystal Cabinet", a poem by William Blake.

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