JScript-enabled Netscape

[Berislav Lopac]

One of the banes of contemporary JavaScript programming for the Web is the
differences between JScript and JavaScript -- specifically, a number of
non-standard, but useful objects and/or methods (especially DHTML-related)
which are available in the former, but not the latter. Since JavaScript
engine in Gekko is very strong, I came to realize that the easiest way to
achieve platform independence would be to write specifically for JScript,
and then to have a JavaScript library with definitions of JScript's DHTML
extensions.

So I thought of writing such a library myself, but as it is quite a massive
task I first wanted to check with the group if anyone knows of such a thing
already existing somewhere?

Berislav

 

[Martin Honnen]

One of the banes of contemporary JavaScript programming for the Web is the
differences between JScript and JavaScript -- specifically, a number of
non-standard, but useful objects and/or methods (especially DHTML-related)
which are available in the former, but not the latter. Since JavaScript
engine in Gekko is very strong, I came to realize that the easiest way to
achieve platform independence would be to write specifically for JScript,
and then to have a JavaScript library with definitions of JScript's DHTML
extensions.

The MS reference docs for JScript are at
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d...56/html/js56jslrfJScriptLanguageReference.asp
Do you find any DHTML extensions there?
So it seems you confuse host objects respectively the object models
http://jibbering.com/faq/#FAQ2_8
an application like a browser provides with the core language.

As for trying to emulate MSIE DOM features with Mozilla there are people
who have done that, one of the better attempts at that is at
http://webfx.eae.net/dhtml/ieemu/

However I would stronly suggest to use the W3C DOM as much as possible
if you are scripting for the Web now and not to start with IE
extensions. The W3C DOM should give you a solid base for IE5+, Netscape
6+, Opera 7 and other browsers like Konqueror, Safari.

 

[Berislav Lopac]

The MS reference docs for JScript are at
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/script56/ht
ml/js56jslrfJScriptLanguageReference.asp
Do you find any DHTML extensions there?
So it seems you confuse host objects respectively the object models
http://jibbering.com/faq/#FAQ2_8
an application like a browser provides with the core language.

I stand corrected and ashamed -- I should have known that.

However I would stronly suggest to use the W3C DOM as much as possible
if you are scripting for the Web now and not to start with IE
extensions. The W3C DOM should give you a solid base for IE5+,
Netscape 6+, Opera 7 and other browsers like Konqueror, Safari.

Very well, then -- but how about the XML-handling OM's? In my experience
they differ slightly in the two main browsers. I have seen WebFX's solution,
but they still leave out some very useful features found in JScript.

Berislav

 

[Martin Honnen]

I stand corrected and ashamed -- I should have known that.

Very well, then -- but how about the XML-handling OM's? In my experience
they differ slightly in the two main browsers. I have seen WebFX's solution,
but they still leave out some very useful features found in JScript.

JScript has XML features? I thought above you noted that you now
understand the difference between a language and an object model. IE
(and only on Win) uses MSXML to load and parse XML, MSXML is COM based
so you can use it with JScript or VBScript or VB or even PHP on Win, so
those useful features have nothing to do with JScript.
I don't know what features you are missing, if you are ony interested in
the IE on Win and Mozilla based browsers and want a solution without
understanding for instance the powerful XPath implementation Mozilla has
by now you might want to look at
http://sarissa.sourceforge.net/

 

[Berislav Lopac]

JScript has XML features? I thought above you noted that you now
understand the difference between a language and an object model. IE
(and only on Win) uses MSXML to load and parse XML, MSXML is COM based
so you can use it with JScript or VBScript or VB or even PHP on Win,
so those useful features have nothing to do with JScript.
I don't know what features you are missing, if you are ony interested
in the IE on Win and Mozilla based browsers and want a solution
without understanding for instance the powerful XPath implementation
Mozilla has by now you might want to look at
http://sarissa.sourceforge.net/

Sorry for my innacurate terminology, but yes, this is exactly what I had in
mind. I meant the IE (i.e. MSXML) specific extensions when used from
JScript, and specifically selectNodes and selectSingleNode methods which
Sarissa provides. Thanks!

Berislav

 

[Brian Genisio]

One of the banes of contemporary JavaScript programming for the Web is the
differences between JScript and JavaScript -- specifically, a number of
non-standard, but useful objects and/or methods (especially DHTML-related)
which are available in the former, but not the latter. Since JavaScript
engine in Gekko is very strong, I came to realize that the easiest way to
achieve platform independence would be to write specifically for JScript,
and then to have a JavaScript library with definitions of JScript's DHTML
extensions.

So I thought of writing such a library myself, but as it is quite a massive
task I first wanted to check with the group if anyone knows of such a thing
already existing somewhere?

Berislav

Something similar has been tried in the past, though I do not believe it
was successful. Others may disagree. It is still active, though I am
not sure how much. It is called DynAPI at site:

http://dynapi.sourceforge.net/dynapi/

It tried to make a new API to do everything via a standard interface. I
played with it a lot, and even implemented a website using it with
flash-style animations via JS. It worked well, but it was not as
portable as I would have liked... It didnt work well in opera, and had
problems with Linux Netscape versions.

You might want to read their code, as there will likely be a lot of
already-learned info for you.

Brian

 

[kaeli]

So I thought of writing such a library myself, but as it is quite a massive
task I first wanted to check with the group if anyone knows of such a thing
already existing somewhere?

If you mean a library of cross-browser DHTML that does object checking
and stuff for you, then yes.
There are a couple already.

--
--
~kaeli~
A little rudeness and disrespect can elevate a meaningless
interaction to a battle of wills and add drama to an
otherwise dull day.
http://www.ipwebdesign.net/wildAtHeart
http://www.ipwebdesign.net/kaelisSpace