A language like JavaScript, with a large diverse user space, is half designed, and half reverse engineered. Like all web standards, JavaScript is developed in conjunction with the realities of the web and user decisions in how the language is used and formed. This results in unique backwards compatibility issues such as the recent smooshGate discussion. These cannot be ignored in the standardization process, even when better alternatives exist. This talk will discuss constraints, mediation strategies and issues that have arisen from the proposal process introduced by the TC39, and the unique challenge of introducing formalist methods to a language that has been developed in such a manner.