Why was ECMAScript 4th edition completely scrapped?

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Simply put, there was no ECMAScript 4th Edition. From the 5th edition specification:

Significant work was done to develop a fourth edition of ECMAScript. Although that work was not completed and not published as the fourth edition of ECMAScript, it informs continuing evolution of the language. The present fifth edition of ECMAScript (published as ECMA-262 5th edition) codifies de facto interpretations of the language specification that have become common among browser implementations and adds support for new features that have emerged since the publication of the third edition.

Basically, there were a lot of very strong opinions about how to move JavaScript forward, many of which were incompatible, some of which had mostly been assembled into what some thought would be the 4th edition before things fell apart (not least because of lack of support from some important implementors). Meanwhile, a new edition of the standard was very, very overdue, and so after a lot of advance negotiation, the various parties got together in Oslo in July 2008 and agreed a way forward (Brendan Eich [inventor of JavaScript] later termed that approach “Harmony” when writing it up).

Harmony deferred some things, put some things completely off the table forever (namespaces, packages, early binding), and — importantly — allowed the committee to move forward with the first specification update since 1999: The 5th edition.

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