Influences on ECMAScript 6

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This is a list of a few ECMAScript 6 features and what their influences were:




  • Iteration: Python (but with a modified protocol)

  • Generators: Python

  • Arrow functions: CoffeeScript

  • const: The name comes from C++ (the latest C standard borrowed it from C++), but it behaves more like Java’s final.

  • let: is old, became popular via BASIC.

    • Also frequently appears in functional programming languages (Lisp, ML, etc.), but creates immutable bindings there.



  • Template literals: E (quasi literals)

  • Destructuring: Lisp (destructuring bind)

  • Modules: CommonJS, AMD

  • Species pattern (Symbol.species): Smalltalk

  • Promises:, also often called futures, are an old construct from concurrent programming languages. But ES6 Promises don’t block, they accept continuations via callbacks.



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