A JS eye for the emacs guy!

[alex]

Hi there!

I'm just starting out with javascript. My background is in
c/python/java/ruby/perl. I have an old and steady relationship with
emacs and the command line. I've tried a couple of IDEs, but it never
lasted.

Coming to javascript I'm at a bit of a loss. What bothers me most is
the inability to test stuff from the command line. I guess the first
thing I want to do is get acquainted with a javascript unit testing
framework. Google tells me that there are three such frameworks, two
named jsunit and one from script.aculo.us. Which one has momentum?
Which one am I likely to digg, being an emacs kind of guy?

And what about debuggers? I've never really liked them. Usually I just
do unit testing and printf statements, but considering that javascript
is harder to interact with from the command line, maybe I should learn
a debugger after all? Is Venkman the thing to go with in that area or
what?

TIA alex

 

[Ian Collins]

Hi there!

I'm just starting out with javascript. My background is in
c/python/java/ruby/perl. I have an old and steady relationship with
emacs and the command line. I've tried a couple of IDEs, but it never
lasted.

emacs supports JavaScript quite happily.

Coming to javascript I'm at a bit of a loss. What bothers me most is
the inability to test stuff from the command line. I guess the first
thing I want to do is get acquainted with a javascript unit testing
framework. Google tells me that there are three such frameworks, two
named jsunit and one from script.aculo.us. Which one has momentum?
Which one am I likely to digg, being an emacs kind of guy?

I've been using JsUnit from http://www.jsunit.net/, works well in all
browsers I've tried and has support for server driven testing.

And what about debuggers? I've never really liked them. Usually I just
do unit testing and printf statements, but considering that javascript
is harder to interact with from the command line, maybe I should learn
a debugger after all? Is Venkman the thing to go with in that area or
what?

It you use JsUnit and Test Driven Development, you shouldn't need to use
a debugger. You can use the log facility in JsUnit and fall back to
alert() if you want to have a look at data on a running page.