Timeline for Why the recent shift to removing/omitting semicolons from Javascript?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
31 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 26, 2023 at 18:51 | comment | added | N.Atanasov | Looks like the AirBnB style guide recommends using the semicolon so that their is no interpretation needed via the Automatic Semicolon Insertion (ASI). github.com/airbnb/javascript#semicolons | |
| May 25, 2021 at 11:09 | answer | added | JacquesB | timeline score: 8 | |
| May 10, 2021 at 15:54 | answer | added | Scotty Jamison | timeline score: 1 | |
| Jun 4, 2020 at 21:28 | comment | added | LarsH | @OP The link to Crockford's web site doesn't go to the right page. It should be crockford.com/code.html | |
| Jun 1, 2020 at 15:53 | comment | added | Rick O'Shea | There is also no compelling reason given by proponents not to use two or three semicolons instead of just one, and there's no reason provided as to why you should not wave a rubber chicken over the keyboard. You are free to do all of the above with my blessing. Just don't make the rest of us have to maintain what is really a psychological "tick" ingrained by habituation in languages that DO require a semicolon as a statement terminator. | |
| Jan 12, 2018 at 16:59 | comment | added | SantiBailors | @RickO'Shea overwhelmed by common sloppiness. The reason why I use semicolons is that it is ridiculously easy, it makes line breaks irrelevant at runtime, and allows me not to have to worry about there being "edge cases", about which ones they are, in which JavaScript versions, this kind of things. So you are wrong about my reason for using semicolons. And your point would also apply to using variable names like a instead of meaningful names, which are also "unnecessary" in the sense in which you are using the word. "Unnecessary" is NOT a reason not do do something. | |
| May 23, 2017 at 12:40 | history | edited | CommunityBot | replaced http://stackoverflow.com/ with https://stackoverflow.com/ | |
| Jul 25, 2016 at 4:43 | comment | added | Rick O'Shea | The reason you're using semicolons has nothing to do with asinine edge cases it's due to extreme cultural habituation carried over from C and its successors. It's a common pathology. That they are unnecessary IS the compelling reason; they probably didn't feel they needed to point out that "unnecessary" is generally a compelling reason not to do something. What's the compelling reason not to use a pair of them? It's the same rationale for omitting the first one. I'm going to guess this dogmatic practice quietly fades over time, overwhelmed by common sense. | |
| Nov 1, 2015 at 19:49 | comment | added | Alex | This might be related the rising prominence of hipsters in the early 2010s. | |
| Aug 27, 2015 at 4:29 | history | protected | gnat | ||
| Jul 12, 2015 at 20:32 | answer | added | justmoon | timeline score: 29 | |
| Apr 16, 2015 at 20:40 | answer | added | Ten Bitcomb | timeline score: 2 | |
| Apr 16, 2015 at 19:53 | answer | added | Encaitar | timeline score: 8 | |
| Apr 16, 2015 at 19:24 | answer | added | 53777A | timeline score: 10 | |
| Apr 16, 2015 at 12:03 | answer | added | flying sheep | timeline score: 1 | |
| Jan 20, 2015 at 23:24 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/#!/StackProgrammer/status/557680163228745728 | ||
| May 13, 2013 at 12:22 | comment | added | Andres F. | @gnat The blacklisted question actually has some very interesting examples of why omitting the ; can break your code. So I'd say it's a useful reference for this question. | |
| Apr 4, 2012 at 17:15 | comment | added | MarkJ | @gnat Questions that are "officially considered inappopriate on StackOverflow" are sometimes considered very authoritative by the expert community. Sad but true. | |
| Apr 4, 2012 at 16:47 | answer | added | mjhm | timeline score: 9 | |
| Apr 2, 2012 at 12:31 | vote | accept | Jonathan | ||
| Mar 29, 2012 at 22:23 | answer | added | Mark Canlas | timeline score: 54 | |
| Mar 29, 2012 at 20:15 | answer | added | Pat | timeline score: 91 | |
| Mar 29, 2012 at 14:45 | answer | added | Kevin McCormick | timeline score: 24 | |
| Mar 29, 2012 at 14:15 | comment | added | Kevin McCormick | I would say that going through a semi-large, working, codebase and removing semicolons doesn't decrease typing. It will probably be awhile before reaping the ROI there. The ONLY reason here is preference and an appreciation for minimalism. | |
| Mar 29, 2012 at 13:27 | comment | added | gnat | @Ryathal it's not about hate - eg, I wouldn't mind if OP referred to particular answer of that question that I could study - but this is not what I see. OP simply gives question link as if this automagically makes their statement authoritative - to which I object by pointing out that questions of that kind are officially considered inappropriate at SO. Fair enough? | |
| Mar 29, 2012 at 13:16 | answer | added | Ed James | timeline score: 2 | |
| Mar 29, 2012 at 13:02 | history | edited | Jonathan | CC BY-SA 3.0 | Edit to point to another source for recommended practice |
| Mar 29, 2012 at 12:58 | comment | added | Ryathal | @gnat just because people hate the question being on SO doesn't make it a less valid source of people's opinion. | |
| Mar 29, 2012 at 12:42 | comment | added | gnat | "years of recommended practice" refer a question of blacklisted SO polls tag which unlikely makes it authoritative to support any kind of opinion | |
| Mar 29, 2012 at 12:37 | answer | added | Raynos | timeline score: 29 | |
| Mar 29, 2012 at 12:05 | history | asked | Jonathan | CC BY-SA 3.0 |