On this JS MDN page it says this:
JavaScript 1.8.1 note
Starting in JavaScript 1.8.1, setters are no longer called when setting p
This code-snippet:
var o = {};
o.seven = 7;
and this code-snippet:
var o = { seven: 7 };
are normally equivalent; but if they're preceded by this code-snippet:
Object.prototype.__defineSetter__('seven', function(x) { alert(x); });
then only the former will alert 7 (because the setter is called by o.seven = 7, but not by o = { seven: 7 }), and only the latter will actually set o.seven to 7.