Panel: Don't Break the Web! - Evolving JS While Keeping Developers Sane
summary
TC39 balances adding features with the mandate to not break the web, choosing names (switching from flatten to alternatives) to avoid a real-world breakage that affected legacy libraries like MooTools; the committee meets about 50 people per meeting, is corporate-member driven, and runs work publicly on tc39 proposals repo and tests with test262. A simple queue web app coordinates who speaks in meetings, and transpilers like Babel plus modules like graceful-fs show why backwards compatibility and staged adoption matter.
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chapters (10)
- 0:00Welcome and introductions
- 2:05TC39 overview and roles
- 9:34Smoosh gate and breaking changes
- 16:28Functional programming features
- 20:25Syntax debates and proposals
- 23:20Node.js and TC39 collaboration
- 24:45Human connection in standards
- 25:48Diversity and inclusivity in TC39
- 28:38TC39 process improvements
- 30:05How to get involved in TC39
