A little brainstorm on converting between number bases in JavaScript. Feedback is welcome.

number-base-conversion.js

;(function(undefined) {

  'use strict';
  
  var debug = function(err) {
    console.error(err.message + '\n' + err.stack);
  };

  try {

    var global = this;

    var BaseConverter = (function() {

      function BaseConverter() {};

      BaseConverter.prototype.convert = function(num) {
        this.from = function(baseFrom) {
          baseFrom = normalize(baseFrom);
          this.to = function(baseTo) {
            baseTo = normalize(baseTo);
            if (numeric(num)) {
              return parseFloat((parseFloat(num, baseFrom) >>> 0).toString(baseTo), baseTo);
            } else {
              throw new Error('BaseConverter: convert() expected a number or a numeric string but instead got: "' + num + '"');
            }
          };
          return this;
        };
        return this;
      };

      var numeric = function(n) { return !isNaN(parseFloat(n)) && isFinite(n) };

      var normalize = function(base) {
        switch (base) {
          case 'bin':
          case 'binary':
            base = 2;
            break;
          case 'oct':
          case 'octal':
            base = 8;
            break;
          case 'dec':
          case 'decimal':
            base = 10;
            break;
          case 'hex':
          case 'hexadecimal':
            base = 16;
            break;
          default:
            base = base;
        }
        return base;
      };

      return BaseConverter;

    })();

    global.convert = (new BaseConverter()).convert;

  } catch (err) {
    debug(err);
  }

}).call(this);

// usage:
/**
 * try {
 *   console.log(convert(2).from('decimal').to('binary')); // outputs: "10"
 * } catch (error) {
 *   console.error(error.message);
 * }
 */