I thought an explicit attribute body would always be executed if the attribute value was referenced before any explicit assignments to the attribute. In other words, I thought that the explicit body took precedence over the default value. Evidently, that is not the case. I wasn't part of the discussions on this issue, so I hope there are good reasons for this decision. The way it currently works seems wrong to me. Please discuss this with the ECMA committee if not already hashed out in detail and if you feel it is appropriate.