Whether you are forced to code javascript in Visual Studio 2010, or insist on using Visual Studio 2010 instead of another IDE, I'm wondering what anyone has done to improve the javascript development experience in VS2010.
I'm asking since javascript support is lacking in Visual Studio 2010. You don't get the the kind of support you get as if you were developing Silverlight apps in C# and XAML. For example, the intellisense doesn't support javascript 1.8.5 (or even 1.6 functions i.e. JSON.Parse), it's difficult to navigate to function or object definitions (no Go To Definition), no Object Browser, Call Hierarchy, and the list can go on.
What have you done to compensate for the VS2010 features that don't exist for javascript? Also, what would be a good feature request to support javascript development; anything that VS2010 should add as an extension or a future release? Also, are there any suggestions to manage the .js code for large projects?
A few things that have helped me so far are the JScript Editor Extensions, and the Web Standards Update. Also, when working in .js files I rely on bookmarks to get back to key places, since the functions of the file aren't visible (as the would be in C#). My feature request would be to add intellisense support by javascript version, similar to how you can target .NET 2.0, 3.5, or 4.0.
There are a number of VS extensions to assist with javascript:
Visual Studio Javascript extensions feature comparison
JSEnhancements is awesome, and does what you really want: adds regions and code block collapsing.
Also see this extension: http://code.google.com/p/js-addin/
which parses your script into an object tree that can be used for navigation.
I have also used the free version of this editor: http://www.yaldex.com/JSFactory_Pro.htm
I can't recommend it, unfortunately, because it suffers from a couple critical problems (awkward UI, freaky intellisense, and not entirely stable). Which is too bad because it's a very thoughtfully designed piece of software by and large, it just fails where the rubber meets the road.
1) Install Resharper, helps a lot when building javascript heavy web apps.
2) Get FireBug for debugging.
3) Also, the JQuery.vsdocs files are sometimes helpful!
While I use vim and Notepad++ to cut code, I feel your pain, or did until I started using Firebug to debug JavaScript. While it many not be exactly fitting for your situation it's invaluable to me in developing Web based apps:
http://getfirebug.com/
Related
Are there any known Plugins or ways to properly autoformat Javascript in Netbeans IDE?
EDIT 9/15/2012
After looking into this further, I have found that the javascript module is being rewritten already(much needed). You can finally find formatting options for javascript. It's available in the netbeans nightly builds. Good luck all.
http://bits.netbeans.org/download/trunk/nightly/
I have released a pretty simple JS formatter that uses JSBeautify and runs in Rhino.
http://plugins.netbeans.org/plugin/43263/jsbeautify
You have to use an alternate key for now. I'm working on modifying the Javascript language in Netbeans to possibly release something better, later on(either as a plugin or patch). I'm still familiarizing myself with the way things are happening in Netbeans.
There have been talks for years to add more formatting options for Javascript in Netbeans. Nothing has surfaced. I'm going to propose that the Javascript language leverage JSBeautify(running in Rhino) to provide formatting, rather then implementing new features in Java. This simplifies the formatting process, plus the JSBeautify community is very large and it's actively developed.
I am new to apple and would like to learn to program web sites in mac. I am interested in learning Backbone/Knockout js. Is there any write up available that I can use to kick start my learning experience? All my development on the two technologies were using Windows ASP.Net under IIS. What are the things I need to setup a simple development environment to learn and test above mentioned technologies in Mac?
(Your question is pretty broad, and I'm assuming that you know relatively little about JavaScript and are just looking to start writing JavaScript applications on your Mac. Note that this is not going to be much different from writing them on a Windows machine, but I have little experience with developing web applications on Windows machines. Hopefully my answer is within the scope of your question.)
For JavaScript development, all you need is a text editor and some sort of JavaScript engine. As far as text editors go, TextMate is the most popular Mac app of that sort (although it requires a license). You could also use the built-in TextEdit app (although it's horrible IMO), a command-line text editor (such as Vi or Vim), or a different editor such as Sublime Text. But in a nutshell: JavaScript does not require any specific IDE or anything like that. Use whatever you like.
As far as a JavaScript engine goes, since you're looking to do web design, you really just need a web browser. The major browsers for Mac (Chrome, Safari, and Firefox) all have advanced web design tools (the built-in inspectors in Chrome and Safari, and the Firebug add-on for Firefox) that will allow you to see the JavaScript console, network requests, etc. You can even fire those up and write JavaScript statements directly into them. You should explore those sooner rather than later, as they'll prove immensely valuable.
I can add Jetbrains WebStorm with awesome javascript/coffeescript intellisense. And node.js as server.
I currently use Eclipse as my IDE for other languages and I'm rather used to not having to leave the IDE for anything - however I'm really struggling to find the same or a similar setup for pure ECMAScript-262.
To clarify, I am not looking for DOM support, jquery, HTML or anything like that, preferably just an IDE with ECMAScript-262 support (pref node.js) built in (debugging not important) so that I can simply run my code in the IDE.
Any ideas?
ps: please don't suggest aptana.
jEdit is about what you want. Take a look at the plugins available.
So far, it seems there has only been talk about integrating node.js debugging with Google Chrome. But that may be exactly your answer if it happens.
If you don't mind to pay a price, I advice Jetbrains WebStorm.
Recently purchased a license myself (it's not that expensive) and am very happy with it.
Before I used Eclipse and Aptana, but seriously, WebStorm IS quality.
Not sure if I am currently breaking a rule by linking to a commercial product, but it IS an awnser ;)
There is Nodeclipse effort.
Vision
One-stop shop for Node.js tools. We can't develop everything at once,
but we let you know what are the best things around for Node.js
development with Eclipse.
Latest version is 0.4, works well in Eclipse 4.3 Kepler.
It has integrated ChromeDevTools and V8 remote debugger for debugging Node.js application,
that is quite useful when learning Node.js to understand what is happening in memory.
Also comes with markdown (.md) Editor (The same markup language that is used on GitHub, Stackoverflow.com & npm)
It is free open-source hosted on GitHub
I currently use TextMate for Ruby/Javascript/Actionscript development and it is amazing. But one thing I would really love to use are breakpoints so I could stop code execution and examine the state of the variables and walk through the code. Something like what Flex Builder does.
Does TextMate have this capability? Or what do you use to do breakpoints and that sort of thing with Ruby? How about for Javascript too?
Thanks!
Since TextMate is not an IDE but just a text editor (on steroids though!) I believe this is something totally not supported.
As for the javascript, this is something you can do with firebug (at least for firefox) and similar tools are included (or can be found) for IE, Chrome and Safari :)
There are 3 mostly-Java IDEs that run under Mac OS X yet do a good job of developing (and of course debugging) Ruby.
Eclipse, with the Aptana plugin;
IntelliJ IDEA (it knows lots of programming languages)
NetBeans (I think).
All three are free (even IntelliJ, they have an Open Source edition out now), so you can just download, play around with it, get accustomed and go to town.
Eclipse with the Dynamic Languages Toolkit supports Ruby debugging. I have used it in the past, and it supports Javascript as well.
TextMate is an editor and not a full-blown IDE, so it doesn't support debugging.
If you're looking for a Ruby IDE, I highly recommend RubyMine. It's got great support for debugging, running tests, easily navigating between files, and basic refactoring. Admittedly it's a lot more heavyweight, so I tend to use it for major work (or when getting up to speed on an existing code base), and still use TextMate for quick changes.
There are some open source solutions as well. In the past I've used NetBeans and RadRails, and particularly NetBeans has worked very well for me, too. Not as good as RubyMine, but well worth checking out if you're on a budget.
I should also point out that you can debug Ruby apps from the command line, using the ruby-debug gem. Basically, you place a debugger call into your code to set a breakpoint, and then run the app with rdebug instead of ruby. Check out this article for an overview.
arcadia is a ruby editor written in ruby with ruby debugging support. A little rough still, but at least you get the good feeling of running ruby :)
-r
I need to find if there are any tools targeting both Visual Studio 2005 and JavaScript. I'm interested in plugins which will increase the quality of work done in VS2005 with JavaScript oriented development.
I think you'll be hard pressed to find anything specific for VS2005, since it is a dev environment and JS is a client technology. However, a couple of ideas you might want to consider:
jQuery. The recent availability of Intellisense for jQuery (although I think it is only for VS2008) helps your quality of work in the sense that you don't have to spend so much time looking back and forth at documentation, although I would say that is the best way to really become familiar with it anyway. There are several other good JS libraries out there, but (a) I don't think that was the point of your question, and (b) jQuery is the only one "semi-officially" supported in VS that I'm aware of.
Script#. Although I haven't used it, it looks interesting... basically you program in C#, and it gets translated to JS at runtime.
If you could afford it, I'll recommend upgrading to Visual Studio 2008. You can open .NET 2.0 application without converting them. It comes with much better Javascript Intellisense.
(source: scottgu.com)
One of the other JavaScript features in VS 2008 is the much-improved support for JavaScript debugging.
These features are enabled in both the free Visual Web Developer 2008 Express edition as well as in Visual Studio, and makes using JavaScript and building AJAX applications significantly easier.
If you are using jQuery in your applications, then you could install jQuery Intellisense in VS 2008.
Well, if you want something that will help you write better Javascript in Visual Studio then you can give JSLint a try. It's a plugin that will verify your Javascript code, spot errors, and help you debug it.
Beware, JSLint can hurt feelings.