I always wondered how vendors go about making decisions when they're working on a product and the core standards defining the technology behind that product are in flux. Typically, if the standard is important enough to the vendor, it is involved in any standards effort governing the evolution of the standard in question. And it has some say in what the standard will look like.

Such is the case with Microsoft, its Internet Explorer browser, and the ECMAScript standard, which is the standard that defines JavaScript. As JavaScript lies at the heart of any browser, Microsoft has been actively involved in the shaping of the ECMAScript specification.

Indeed, Microsoft helped defeat a proposed ECMAScript 4 specification in 2008, instead pushing for the completion of what will be known as ECMAScript 3.1. However, as the ECMAScript standard has not changed since ECMAScript 3 came out in 1999, it's clear that a change is due. And it is coming soon, while Microsoft is smack-dab in the middle of finishing up work on the latest version of its browser, IE 8.

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