Safari Is Testing BigInt Math Early

In Release Notes for Safari Technology Preview 248, WebKit added an experimental implementation of the TC39 BigInt Math proposal.

“Added support for BigInt Math.”

The proposal includes methods such as BigInt.sqrt(), BigInt.pow(), BigInt.abs(), BigInt.min(), and BigInt.max().

What makes this interesting is that BigInt Math is still only a Stage 1 TC39 proposal. It may change substantially before becoming part of JavaScript, but WebKit developers can already experiment with a working implementation.

That raises a worthwhile question: Should browsers implement proposals this early so developers can test them, or does shipping an implementation risk creating a de facto standard before the standards process is finished?

The quieter but potentially more significant change is new WebDriver support for testing the Digital Credentials API. This gives developers tools to simulate digital wallets, rejected requests, delayed responses, and credentials such as mobile driver’s licenses.

The individual testing commands are not especially exciting, but they suggest that browser-based identity is moving closer to becoming a practical web-platform capability. The privacy and social consequences of websites requesting verified identity may ultimately matter far more than a few new JavaScript methods.

Read the full Safari Technology Preview 248 release notes.