JavaScript 1.7 is in Firefox Beta

True to Brendan Eich's earlier timeline predictions, Firefox 2b2 now implements JavaScript 1.7, with such new features as:

• Array comprehensions
• Fine-tuned scoping via "let" expressions
• Multivalued function returns

These are currently available only in the browser, alas, and not in Mozilla's Rhino engine. Rhino has a history of following the ECMA standards quite closely, and the JS1.7 features are not part of any standard (yet).

Of course, none of this will be in Internet Explorer any time soon. Once again, the Firefox folks have made a bold move into unexplored territory, leaving the safe, comfortable, Web 1.0 weenie-world of Ballmer & Co. ever further behind.