Subj : Re: A plea to the Open Sourcerors To : netscape.public.mozilla.jseng From : Shanti Rao Date : Mon Feb 02 2004 06:48 pm Andrew Mayo wrote: > "Sterling Bates" wrote in message news:... > >>"Andrew Mayo" wrote in message >>news:2b20cd9f.0401260159.748bc73f@posting.google.com... >> >>>It sure would be nice to have a decent Open Source implementation of >>>Javascript which included file I/O capabilities and had a fairly small >>>runtime footprint. I would have thought a *lot* of people would have >>>found it useful. Currently, it looks like XPCOM almost does it, but >>>doesn't do file I/O and I get the impression I'm being discouraged to >>>experiment further with Seamonkey's jsshell as this is presumably just >>>a 'proof of concept'. If you only need Windows, use my JSDB shell (search google), though it's overkill for what you're doing. Contrary to Andrew's initial impression, a JS shell is insufficiently ubiquitous to be a killer app. At least, nobody's beating down MY door. I've found it difficult to convince people, including techies, that JS is a real language and not just for web browsers. Imagine the marketing campaign: 10. JavaScript is so easy to extend, you don't need SWIG. 9. JavaScript: It's not just for pop-ups anymore. 8. If you're going to stick your algorithm in a web page eventually, you might as well start with JavaScript. 7. Choose JavaScript when you want a procedural language with syntax but don't have time for type checking. 6. All scripting languages may look alike, but JavaScript speaks Unicode. 5. Picking a scripting language for your application? Your clients probably already know JavaScript. 4. JavaScript: it looks like C, but there's no obfuscated code contest. 3. JavaScript: as reliable as Python, without those annoying >>>s. 2. JavaScript: because LISP doesn't do regular expressions (sorry, Gerry). 1. If you can write Perl, then you can read JavaScript. In a month or two, we're going to start making JSDB cross-platform and open-source. Let me know if you'd like to help port it. Even better would be if someone wrote a remote debugging interface for Venkman. Robert wrote some notes on what's needed in n.p.m.jsdebugger. Shanti .