In both ES5 and ES6 (so far) we have generally tried to maintain the section
structure of the previous editions. Occasionally we have had to do some minor
subsection renumbering (or not so minor in the case of ES5 section 10) but have
generally maintained the overall structure of the entire document, even when it
has appeared to non-optimial or even confusing.
I'm now looking at the work to implement the refactoring of the internal
methods in section 8 and I see we are probably going to loose even more of the
section number correspondence with previous editions. This tempts me to seize
the moment, abandon the legacy organization, and reorganize in a more logical
manner.
Here is the new structure that I have in mind, with reference to existing ES5
(section numbers:)
Introductory Material
Scope (1)
Conformance (2)
Normative References (3)
Overview (4)
Notational Conventions(5)
The ECMAScript Computational Engine
Data Types and Values (8)
Commonly used Abstract Operations (9)
ECMAScript Execution (10 and possibly parts of 14)
[Possibly new material related to module loaders and realms]
The ECMAScript Programming Language
Source Text (6)
Conformance, Error Handling, and Extensions (16)
Lexical Tokens (7)
Expressions (11)
Statements (12)
Functions and Classes (13)
Scripts and Modules (14)
The ECMAScript Standard Library (15)
[potentially some reordering and reorganization]
Annexes
What thoughts do people have about this? Should we go for an improved document
organization or should be continue to patch around the current structure,
probably forever. If we do restructure, I would probably do most of the work
after we were feature complete and until them, only make incremental changes
that make sense that the context of new feature work. But it would be helpful
to decide soon which path we are going to take.
One of the issue is the correspondence between the spec. organization and the
test262 organization. We already have massive changes changes and the
algorithm and algorithm set level that will impact test232, so I'm not sure
that the higher level reorg that I'm thinking about would have that much more
impact on it.
Feedback???
Allen
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