Dear Final Debug: I’m building a site for a large company that will rely heavily on scripting, both server-side and client-side. That is if it does what I promised my boss it’s going to do. Anyway, these are big scripts and I hate doing them by hand. I always forget to close brackets or something. I’ve tried using Netscape’s Visual JavaScript, but in spite of the name of the program, it doesn’t seem to have much to do with JavaScript. Hey Final Debug, how about a tip? — Bill Hawkins Final Debug Responds: Bill, you’re right about Visual JavaScript, at least the 1.0 version. The program, written in Java, seems best suited for building JavaBeans, not JavaScripts. Don’t discard the program until you’ve considered whether some of your scripts might be best deployed as Beans. This might be the case if your components are destined for an intranet rather than the public Net. If you’re committed to JavaScript, there are some excellent HTML editors for programmers that can be used to make sure you close your brackets. If you’re a Mac man, try BBEdit; if you prefer Windows, you might like Allaire’s HomeSite. If you want a high-level solution, you might want to consider a product I’ve been testing recently, NetObjects’ ScriptBuilder 2.0. It’s the latest version of a program that began life a few years back as Acadia Infuse. Right now, it’s a Windows-only program, but a quick peek at the Usenet newsgroups devoted to the program reveal that a Macintosh version is under development. ScriptBuilder mimics a standard integrated development environment, although nearly all the functions are menu- or toolbar-driven; don’t expect visual tools. Most builders will use it for JavaScript, although it does have a VBScript mode. ScriptBuilder toggles nicely between editing and browsing modes, although its internal browser is a subset of Microsoft’s. You have to go outside the program to see how your scripts will look on a Netscape browser. The most intriguing feature for developers of cross-your-fingers cross-platform scripts is Script Inspector, which analyzes scripts for browser-specific code that might blow up elsewhere. It’s way too polite. If you’re customizing for Microsoft browsers, for example, you might get the error message, “Script may not execute in Netscape Navigator,” which is a kind way of saying, “Not a chance.” The Script Inspector offers reasons for suspect lines, but it can’t fix the incompatibilities. Most of the help for ScriptBuilder can be pulled down from the Net as needed, which can make off-line work cumbersome. It’s also worth noting that the online help from Microsoft and Netscape is slow, even at our ISDN speeds. Couldn’t NetObjects, which seems to have deals with everyone, work out a deal for local documentation and go to the Net when there’s something new? All this notwithstanding, ScriptBuilder 2.0 seems as sturdy a scripting-specific editor we’ve seen. It has a long way to go (as do all Internet programming packages), but it does work. A trial version is available on the NetObjects site.
A final thought on Fusion One final thought, or, more specifically, one pet peeve regarding Fusion 3.0, which Final Debug covered two weeks ago: While using the upgraded program to manipulate graphics, I keep having to go to PhotoShop to do nearly everything. It should be easier to resize images within the program without resorting to HTML. It’s easy in FrontPage and other, cheaper, HTML editors. Why not in Fusion?(less than)/p(greater than)
A JavaScript contestSince we’re covering JavaScript this week, our question will focus on JavaScript, too: In server-side JavaScript, there’s a method of Resultset called next.What does it do? The first person to send a correct answer will win a copy of Symantec’s Visual Java. If you know the answer, tell us.
