a Javascript shell / consolidating some of the free.net.ph lists?

Javascript can be a real pain to debug and code in
because unlike Python, it does not have a command-line
shell and you always end up having to create a (gratuitous)
html file and use alert()s all over the place just to
test out how a short snippet of code works.

Well, this looks like the answer from heaven to such
woes:

http://www.squarefre
e.com/shell/

...it even does DOM!


Incidentally, I just realized there was no good place
to publish such web tips in the PH groups, neither
PH-Compsci, nor PH-PHP are entirely appropriate.

I was wondering since the traffic for PH-PHP, PH-Python,
PH-Perl is REALLY slow anyway, that maybe it would be a
good idea if they were all consolidated into a
PH-"Scripting
and Webdev" list?


Description: "This list is for discussion of scripting
languages
such as Perl, PHP, Python, Javascript, etc.. and web
development
technologies including DOM, CSS, X/HTML, XML, etc..."

Considering the very light traffic, I think that combining
PHP,
Perl, Python etc.. discussions might make for good synergy
and intellectual ferment rather than be annoying or
confusing
(as would be the case if traffic were heavier).


Any ayes or nays out there... ?



-- 
reply-to: a n d y  n e o t i t a n s . c o m
http://neotitans.com -
Web and Software Development

It's called DOM+XHR and it's *NOT* a detergent!
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Andy Sy wrote:

> Description: "This list is for discussion of
scripting languages
> such as Perl, PHP, Python, Javascript, etc.. and web
development
> technologies including DOM, CSS, X/HTML, XML,
etc..."

Forgot to include 'AJAX' in the list of the web dev
technologies
above.  Much as I find this ill-conceived coinage of Jesse
James
Garrett to be pretentious and and esthetically offensive,
it's
become part of the mainstream jargon... :-(



[ and now... to segue into yet another rant... ]

Of course, the term AJAX is just one egregious term on top
of
another, as the XmlHttpRequest() function is _also_
misleadingly
named.  XHR would most appropriately be called just plain
old
HttpRequest() since XML has not the slightest iota to do
with what
is returned by this function!!!  (For example, you can just
return
comma-delimited strings with it and life can be sooo much
simpler...)

Damaging programmer clarity and understanding just to pander
to
the drivel that gets slung around by marketeers (e.g. the
implication that non-usage of XML in this day and age
equates to
a flaw) does a real disservice.

There seems to be little qualm among some out there at
mangling
techie vocabulary in order to conform to suits' misinformed
expectations.  It makes things all the more sickening when
you see
techie geeks like JJG decide to play the marketing dweeb
game
and pollute the conceptual landscape programmers have to
work
in with disingenuous, half-accurate babble perhaps just so
people might think they have come up with a novel concept.

Let me sum up in one sentence what AJAX, or rather XHR
(still
misnamed) is just simply about:

The ability to retrieve the contents of a URL and store it
in a
string (and consequently, do with it as you will any other
Javascript string).


THAT IS JUST ABOUT IT AND NOTHING MORE.


It is not an exotic, hard-to-understand technique that would
take a 'genius' like JJG to come up with and name, but
rather
something so obviously useful, needed and commonsensical
that it
should have been built into browsers since the days of
Netscape
3.0.  [ ... instead, Netscape went off and did far more
difficult
and complex stuff like the *totally* unused LiveConnect
Java<-->Javascript bridge... ]


-- 
reply-to: a n d y  n e o t i t a n s . c o m
http://neotitans.com -
Web and Software Development

It's called DOM+XHR and it's *NOT* a detergent!


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Searchable Archives: http://archives.free.net.
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