Underscore.js is pretty good about delegating to built-in functions when available in its little utility functions. http://documentcloud.github.com/underscore/docs/underscore.h...
I remember running into this in real-world code, trying to calculate the brightest pixel in a <canvas> imageData array.
as Underscore.js do this:
_.max = function(obj, iterator, context) {
if (!iterator && _.isArray(obj)) return Math.max.apply(Math, obj);
var result = {computed : -Infinity};
each(obj, function(value, index, list) {
var computed = iterator ? iterator.call(context, value, index, list) : value;
computed >= result.computed && (result = {value : value, computed : computed});
});
return result.value;
};
_.min = function(obj, iterator, context) {
if (!iterator && _.isArray(obj)) return Math.min.apply(Math, obj);
var result = {computed : Infinity};
each(obj, function(value, index, list) {
var computed = iterator ? iterator.call(context, value, index, list) : value;
computed < result.computed && (result = {value : value, computed : computed});
});
return result.value;
};
Array.max = function( array ){
return Math.max.apply( Math, array );
};
Array.min = function( array ){
return Math.min.apply( Math, array );
};