A version of RegExp.prototype.exec() that returns an iterable

execAll.js

console.log(extractQuotedTextES5('“a” and “b” or “c”'));  // [ 'a', 'b', 'c' ]

// If exec() is invoked on a regular expression whose flag /g is set
// then the regular expression is abused as an iterator:
// Its property `lastIndex` tracks how far along the iteration is
// and must be reset. It also means that the regular expression can’t be frozen.
var regexES5 = /“(.*?)”/g;
function extractQuotedTextES5(str) {
    regexES5.lastIndex = 0;  // to be safe
    var results = [];
    var match;
    while (match = regexES5.exec(str)) {
        results.push(match[1]);
    }
    return results;
}

// If we had a method `execAll()` that returns an iterable,
// the above code would become simpler in ES6.
const REGEX_ES6 = /“(.*?)”/;  // no need to set flag /g
function extractQuotedTextES6a(str) {
    let results = [];
    for (let match of REGEX_ES6.execAll(str)) {
         results.push(match[1]);
    }
    return results;
}

// Even shorter:
function extractQuotedTextES6b(str) {
    return Array.from(REGEX_ES6.execAll(str), x => x[1]);
}