The ECMAScript 4 standard was on the right track: evolve a standard and a liberally-licensed reference implementation in a language with high-quality formal sem

The ECMAScript 4 standard was on the right track: evolve a standard and a liberally-licensed reference implementation in a language with high-quality formal semantics. Ambiguities in the textual standard should be resolved by looking at the reference implementation. Contradictions between the text and the reference implementation should be regarded as bugs in the standard. People complained the ES 4 was too much, too quickly, but I think we're slowly getting something equally complex, but less cohesive and more ad-hoc.