A first look at what might be in ECMAScript 7 and 8

Brendan Eich mentions features that are candidates for ECMAScript 6, 7 and 8:

• ECMAScript 6: modules and shallow continuations. These things have been known for a while – see [1].
• ECMAScript 7: guards, contracts, event loop concurrency.
• ECMAScript 8: macros, parallel arrays (SIMD) [background].

It is interesting that the goal of some features is to make JavaScript a better compilation target [2]. I am very excited about macros possibly making it into ECMAScript 8. Just three benefits:

• Easily create embedded domain-specific languages (for HTML fragments, queries, GUI definitions, etc.).
• Invent new more concise syntax for specific tasks (this one is mainly for – gifted – library authors). If you wanted to, you could also call the result a domain-specific language.
• Any new syntax introduced after ECMAScript 8 can be retrofitted to previous versions via macros.

Related reading:

1. ECMAScript.next: the “TXJS” update by Eich
2. What is the JavaScript equivalent of Java bytecode?

 

From http://www.2ality.com/2011/09/es6-8.html