Code assistant/completion for Javascript for Dreamweaver MX

[John]

Hello,
I'm working with Dreamweaver MX and we started to develop our website
with Javascript too. However, unlike "Eclipse" for Java developement
I don't have the support for Javascript code completion (the "dot
notation") in Dreamweaver MX,
like for ex.

navigator.plugins.name.indexOf("Flash")

Instead of looking in my book reference which objects I am allowed to
call, I'd like to simply write "navigator." ctrl+shift and then obtain
a list of all methods and attributes I can use.
Does anybody know if there is an "Add-On" or a plugin for this code
completion for Dreamwever MX? I mean a good code completion tool...
;-)

Thank you very much for your answerz
John

 

[Richard Cornford]

I'm working with Dreamweaver MX and we started to develop our website
with Javascript too. However, unlike "Eclipse" for Java developement
I don't have the support for Javascript code completion (the "dot
notation") in Dreamweaver MX,
like for ex.

navigator.plugins.name.indexOf("Flash")

Instead of looking in my book reference which objects I am allowed to
call, I'd like to simply write "navigator." ctrl+shift and then obtain
a list of all methods and attributes I can use.

<snip>

Java has a theoretically standardised execution environment in which it
is relatively easy to know exactly which method/properties any given
Class makes available. You seem to want a similar facility that applies
to browser object models. Unfortunately browser object models are not
standardised, beyond the more recent ones more or less implementing the
W3C DOMs.

So what is such a feature going to offer? A list of every method of
every host object ever implemented by any browser, that would be a big
list and not much help as picking an item form the list is no guarantee
that it will be available on the browser receiving the page.

Alternatively you could be presented with a list of methods and
properties known to be implemented by all browsers (in so far as that
information could be known), that would be a very short (possibly empty)
list and probably not worth the effort.

Browser scripting for the Internet is unlike any other programming task
in that it is not possible to author any given script with confidence
that the receiving browser will support any of the features it will need
to successfully execute. Scripts have to probe their way into an
execution environment, testing for any and all required features,
implementing fall-back plans if possible and still exhibiting planed
behaviour in the face of an unsupportive environment, degrading cleanly
to the underlying HTML.

That requirement introduces a strategic aspect at the script design
stage and a need to fully exploit the dynamic nature of javascript in
the implementation. Neither are tasks that lend themselves to automation
of any kind (as the truly appalling javascript that Dreamweaver spews
out if you let it demonstrates).

Richard.