The implementation came first. From what I understood, Microsoft looked at Netscape's implementation, wrote a spec from that and implemented it - so when time came to standardize it, Microsoft had a readily available spec (having written one after reverse engineering Netscape's implementation). Since Javascript has lots of little quirks, Microsoft didn't quite get everything right and so when the final spec was published, Netscape's implementation was actually in violation of it in a couple of places.
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My question is, when did that start working in Javascript?
Does this trick work in Brendan Eich's first JS implementaion in Netscape 2.0? Which came first, the spec or the implementation?
Funny thing, that.
The implementation came first. From what I understood, Microsoft looked at Netscape's implementation, wrote a spec from that and implemented it - so when time came to standardize it, Microsoft had a readily available spec (having written one after reverse engineering Netscape's implementation). Since Javascript has lots of little quirks, Microsoft didn't quite get everything right and so when the final spec was published, Netscape's implementation was actually in violation of it in a couple of places.
I guess that's funny depending on who you are.
A very valid question, haha. JavaScript is full of mysteries.