TC39 General on 2022-04-21

03:06	<sideshowbarker>	Looking at https://github.com/mdn/content/issues/15129 — in general in MDN articles where we’re describing a case where some JavaScript data type gets coerced into another data type, any recommendations on what term we should use? “an x gets cast to a y”, or “an x gets converted to a y”, or “an x gets coerced into a y”? or what? (this particular case is about the delay parameter of `setTimeout()` being coerced into a number)
03:07	<bakkot>	"coerced" is the term I personally use
03:07	<jmdyck>	The spec doesn't use the verb "cast" at all.
03:08	<bakkot>	this is also the word used in at least some education materials, looks like
03:08	<sideshowbarker>	The spec doesn't use the verb "cast" at all. OK yeah then I think we should avoid “cast” in MDN
03:09	<bakkot>	e.g. https://eloquentjavascript.net/01_values.html When an operator is applied to the “wrong” type of value, JavaScript will quietly convert that value to the type it needs, using a set of rules that often aren’t what you want or expect. This is called type coercion.
03:09	<jmdyck>	It does use "coerce" some, but it uses "convert/conversion" a lot more.
03:09	<bakkot>	though that's in a section called "automatic type conversion", not "... coercion", so somewhat inconsistent
03:10	<bakkot>	also e.g. https://exploringjs.com/impatient-js/ch_values.html#coercion-automatic-conversion-between-types
03:10	<sideshowbarker>	OK, I see now we actually have https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary/Type_coercion in MDN
03:11	<sideshowbarker>	Type coercion is the automatic or implicit conversion of values from one data type to another (such as strings to numbers). {{Glossary("Type conversion")}} is similar to type coercion because they both convert values from one data type to another with one key difference — type coercion is implicit whereas type conversion can be either implicit or explicit.
03:12	<jmdyck>	So if a particular case is implicit, how are you supposed to decide if it's coercion or conversion?
03:13	<sideshowbarker>	dunno…
03:16	<jmdyck>	Hm, some of the spec's uses of "coerce" are not implicit. e.g. "A String object can be coerced to a String value by calling the String constructor as a function"
03:18	<jmdyck>	I think the spec is using "coerce" and "convert" interchangeably.
03:57	<sideshowbarker>	They’re likely used interchangeably in MDN articles as well — I doubt most MDN contributors make the distinction