Program for writing & compiling JS

[Spikkel]

I'm learning to write JS.

 

I love Adobe's Dreamweaver for HTML and CSS, since it suggests code, has snippets, tools for quickly inserting/removing comment blocks, colors different commands, and corrects my terrible spelling etc. 

Unfortunately this functionality is not fully supported for JS.

 

Please recommend a program that would help me write and learn JS, especially helping with debugging since I'm still learning.

As a hobby, I want to write a board-game into computer game, so I'm expecting it to get quite big.

 

[Ryujin2003]

Eclipse or IntelliJ?

[Spikkel]

6 minutes ago, Ryujin2003 said:

Eclipse or IntelliJ?

I had a quick look and it seems InteliJ has a free and paid version, the free one does not support JS, only Java. But Eclipse seems nice, will have a look at it. Thanx.

[Ryujin2003]

4 minutes ago, Spikkel said:

I had a quick look and it seems InteliJ has a free and paid version, the free one does not support JS, only Java. But Eclipse seems nice, will have a look at it. Thanx.

I like Eclipse. I know there are some others out there, but I haven't had experience to recommend any of them.

 

Edit: https://www.slant.co/topics/1686/~javascript-ides-or-editors

 

Might be helpful. Visual Studio isn't bad, and my friends like NetBeans as well.

[jj9987]

I use Sublime Text because it is very minimalistlic and easy to use text editor. Add necessary plugins to it and it will help lint your code.

Another good option is Atom.

 

For full massive IDE, I'd suggest IntelliJ or WebStorm from JetBrains.

 

As for Javascript, you don't compile it. It is interpreted at runtime.

[Dat Guy]

1 hour ago, Spikkel said:

help me write and learn JS, especially helping with debugging

 

The best JavaScript debugger for JS which is embedded into HTML is your web browser. You'll (probably) just have to press F12. You can set breakpoints and evaluate variables there as well.

 

As for writing: http://texteditors.org.

[Mira Yurizaki]

I use Atom, though it can be a little sluggish at times and a pain in others if you start loading it with plugins. Notepad++ is always an option.

 

As far as working with the code, for the client side, most of the web browsers already have a very good set of debugging tools available for them. Open it up with F12 on Firefox and Chrome. For the server side, if you do end up using Node.JS, I'll defer you to the options described here: https://spin.atomicobject.com/2015/09/25/debug-node-js/

[SilicateWielder]

11 hours ago, Spikkel said:

I'm learning to write JS.

 

I love Adobe's Dreamweaver for HTML and CSS, since it suggests code, has snippets, tools for quickly inserting/removing comment blocks, colors different commands, and corrects my terrible spelling etc. 

Unfortunately this functionality is not fully supported for JS.

 

Please recommend a program that would help me write and learn JS, especially helping with debugging since I'm still learning.

As a hobby, I want to write a board-game into computer game, so I'm expecting it to get quite big.

 

Hmmm. If you don't mind missing out on learning the APIs for browsers such as Chrome and Firefox, etc. I would recommend using the Sphere Engine. I recommend using the original v1.5 version of the engine if you're unable to figure out the audio functionality on Minisphere

 

As for compiling JS You might be able to use Prepack. It doesn't compile it to say an executable file but it does optimize it. 

 

Minisphere/Sphere: spheredev.org

Prepack: https://prepack.io/

[mrchow19910319]

If you want a fully functioned IDE webstorm. It will show you which line of your code has some sort of error. It is really helpful. It is free if you are a student. 

 

If you want a text editor, I recommend sublime. It is light weight, snappy as fuck. Unlike atom.*cough

[Spikkel]

Wow, I think it is easier to learn the code itself than it is to pick an IDE/game engine/whatever else there is. Ok, I like the idea of Sphere Engine. A lot of people (including other sites) seem to recommend Atom (even though it is slow).

 

The game I want to write will be only 2D graphics, and I doubt any sound at first. And I think running it outside of a browser would be great. Being able to save and load games would also be nice.

[Marty88]

Atom would be a good option while learning. Although the program is basic out of the box you can add linting and auto complete tools for JS that would help you when you go wrong. 

[lal12]

I really love to use Visual Studio Code, it is available for Windows, Mac and Linux. I it based on simular concepts like atom, but it is much faster, smoother and has more functionality like Debugging, and (better) IntelliSense. Especially it JS support is great, as for its usual environment like npm & co, for many packages even typed IntelliSense is available (due to included typescript definitions).

 

And btw Javascript is not interpreted is it compiled at runtime, this principle is called JIT (Just in time). Your code is parsed on execution first, then it is compiled as you use the code. The advantage is that the JIT compiler already knows the values which will be used in the code, which leads to better optimization than in a classical compilation process. So in some Cases JS can even be faster than C or other compiled languages.

[Mira Yurizaki]

25 minutes ago, lal12 said:

I really love to use Visual Studio Code, it is available for Windows, Mac and Linux. I it based on simular concepts like atom, but it is much faster, smoother and has more functionality like Debugging, and (better) IntelliSense. Especially it JS support is great, as for its usual environment like npm & co, for many packages even typed IntelliSense is available (due to included typescript definitions).

Out of curiosity, since I'm feeling lazy at the moment: how's its linter and does it have something like Pigments for Atom?

[lal12]

17 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

Out of curiosity, since I'm feeling lazy at the moment: how's its linter and does it have something like Pigments for Atom?

The linter is built in, for some languages you might need to specify the path to an interpreter (e.g. PHP), but for JS it is all builtin, also it includes IntelliSense (autocompletion, depending on context and types + documentation and parameter showing). IntelliSense of course is hard for dynamic typed language like JS, but with TypeScript definitions it works very well at least for used packages, but also surprisingly well without those definitions.

Something like pigments is built in, even much better readable (displayed as little box), at least for css. I am not much developing for the web currently, so I haven't used sass & co with vscode, but I guess it is supported there too.

 

 

[Mira Yurizaki]

Just now, lal12 said:

The linter is built in, for some languages you might need to specify the path to an interpreter (e.g. PHP), but for JS it is all builtin, also it includes IntelliSense (autocompletion, depending on context and types + documentation and parameter showing). IntelliSense of course is hard for dynamic typed language like JS, but with TypeScript definitions it works very well at least for used packages, but also surprisingly well without those definitions.

 

 

Something like pigments is built in, even much better readable (displayed as little box), at least for css. I am not much developing for the web currently, so I haven't used sass & co with vscode, but I guess it is supported there too.

 

I might have to give it a try then since Atom's sluggishness and aggressive "new project" thing is starting to bug me.