lorlarz said:
Just out of curiosity, how many in this newsgroup actually
have this sort of limited understanding of JavaScript?
Can't speak for others, but for me ... I agree with neither of you.
Javascript in itself is just a language.
It can be used in many places, currently including, but not limited
to, web-pages, PDF files, flash applications, web-servers, .net
applications in general, and the Windows scripting host.
The traditional usage in many of these cases are small scripts that
enhance the experience without being essential, but that is just
the norm, not the limit. Even just in web-pages, Javascript usage
spans from simple form-validations to, e.g., GMail and Google Docs.
The language does not define the use. The target platform of the
program does, to some extend, but with a wide span (e.g., I haven't
seen vector graphics in a PDF file yet).
For web-pages there are generally two approaches:
1. Improving the experience on a page, but with gracefull degredation
if scripting is allowed. This is the approach of high-volume sites
who wants all the customers they can get, even those with javascript
disabled. The page is not the end goal, but a means to an end (e.g.,
finding and buying a product).
2. Browser-applications, where the page depends on scripting to meet
its intended use. The page is not just presenting information, but
actively manipulating it and producing content.
Both are valid.
Let's get beyond this. Beyond the basic language and problems
of its use and get to somethings interesting:
http://groups.google.com/group/realcomplangjsapps
The title sounds somewhat pretentious. I'd guess, if all I know was
the name, that it's a vanity group with few (or just one) recurring
user, and not likely to be interesting in general.
Starting up a group is not easy unless it covers an existing need,
manages to become visible to the people with that need, and does
so in short enough time that it reaches critical mass. Too few users
at a time just means that those users go away, and new users sees
an even less populated group.
I don't generally use Google Groups, either, preferring to stay with
Usenet. Have they created a NNTP interface to their non-Usenet groups
yet?
Some must be sick of the small problems with snippets
and explaining just the basics of the language.
The problems in writing programs in a language can be separated into
the problems inherent to the problem domain (the inherent complexity
of the problem) and the problems deriving from the choice of platform,
language, or other tools (accidental complexity).
The problems that are Javascript related are therefore, to a large
extend, the accidental problems caused by language restrictions or
problems with the target platform (typically web-browsers). Those
problems can, generally, be explained by small snippets of code
that solve that particular problem.
There is a reason it's what we see
Also, many, many users of Javascript on web-pages are not programmers.
They rarely try big programs (and good for them, since it's almost
inevitable that they would fail), so again, their questions are
solved by small snippets of code.
More general problems are typically about algorithms or
data-structures, and would probably fit better in a more general group
than a language-specific one.
Also, at a certain level of complexity, it might be simpler to use
a framework to generate the pages and scripting, instead of writing
it manually, e.g., GWT. At that point, one will go to the framework's
community with questions instead of here.
/L
