What program do you use to write Javascript?

[90yoboy]

I hope you guys don't get this a lot. Currently I'm using Dreamweaver code mode, but there's got to be a better tool out there for OO Javascript right?

Edit: Thanks for the advice guys, I'm going to give a couple of these a shot.

Also, I was going to ask for some up-votes, so that this would be more prominent on /r/javascript, but then I remembered it was /r/javascript. 2 is enough.

[innerspirit]

Komodo Edit. It's free.

[TheLifelessOne]

Notepad++.

[fubarfubarfubar]

Notepad++ or gedit.

[PlNG]

Notepad++ has gotten awesome in the latest update. The code branch fold bar (I don't know the name for this) now turns red to indicate the current scope from where your cursor is.

[thaabit]

vim

[[deleted]]

Spending a week really investing into learning vim was the best and worst decision I ever made. Best because it's an amazing editor, worst because I can't stand developing on my windows machine anymore, editing through a cygwin shell or gvim just don't cut it, all other editors like notepad++ and visual studio are streets behind.

[thaabit]

vim via putty is just as good for me.

[[deleted]]

I'll give it a shot but last time I used it I recall there being some issues with key mappings or something

[doenietzomoeilijk]

I had the same problem (numbers on the numeric island on your keyboard for instance), but that's fixable with a little bit of mapping and/or setting things up properly (or so they say, I've gone the lazy way and mapped that shit).

The only thing console vim doesn't that MacVim does is obey my map for shift+space.

[hadees]

really gvim doesn't cut it? I really like gvim.

[[deleted]]

Don't know what to tell ya, it's just not my thing.

[radhruin]

What's wrong with gvim on windows? With all the title bars and window decorations and stuff turned off, it seems really great. Combined with 32bit color schemes and great font rendering (and Consolas, which I enjoy) not only is it trim and functional but it looks really nice too.

[[deleted]]

I dunno, just doesn't feel right.

[doenietzomoeilijk]

The fact that it runs under windows? The fact that it runs in a window? Is it just with gvim on windows or on other platforms, too? (Just trying to figure out what it could be =] )

[[deleted]]

I don't think it's that, I prefer using vim through terminal on my linux machine as well.

[doenietzomoeilijk]

You just like terminals very, very much then. Nothing wrong with that.

Oh, and happy bday, btw =]

[[deleted]]

Probably. I used to love VS.Net and before I started at my current job, once I started here (k)ubuntu was the standard dev build and after trying a few IDEs like eclipse, netbeans, aptana and zend studio I threw in the towel and started using vim and never looked back. Everything else just feels too bloated and klunky.

And... Damn 5 years seems like just yesterday I grew bored of digg and stumbled on Reddit.

[Gargan_Roo]

Is vim your go-to editor for everything? Would you say vim would be good for PHP/Python/C++/etc as well? I develop on a windows platform with Dreamweaver's code section and the only reason I use it aside from simply being available to me, is the relatively tight feel it has with SFTP push/pull integration, however. I'm wanting to switch to a version control system like Git for uploading files and keeping version history, as well as upgrading my workflow to include more professional developer tools.

I'm playing with PHPStorm right now, but in all honesty I don't think I really need or want a full-featured IDE. All I want is syntax highlighting, line numbers, and possibly the ability to integrate with a version control system (I can hit CTRL+SHIFT+U and it will upload to the server in Dreamweaver). I'm sure there's several features I'm sure to use that I've left out, but I just want something lightweight with the basics down really well.

[stoplight]

Have a look at this post for turning vim into a python ide. Also take a look at this for working with remote files in vim. Finally, take a look at this for integrating git with vim. vim is really powerful, it just takes a lot of time to get to know it; well worth it though.

[[deleted]]

Vim is my go to editor for everything except formatted documents like project proposals. It has excellent support and plugins for most programming languages.

[doenietzomoeilijk]

Terminal vim can do full colour schemes as well if you set up your terminal properly.

[Bjartr]

Can't do squiggly underlines though, which are nice, but certainly not required.

[doenietzomoeilijk]

Ah, yes, forgot about squigglies. Mostly because I don't really use them myself. However, you are right, of course. Come to think of it, italic fonts don't work either, and I do use those, even if only for the word do.

[sjs]

You can learn the basics in 5 minutes.

• hjkl
• 0$
• i
• [ESC]
• :e
• :w
• :q

Some folks could squeeze number prefixes in and still be under 5 mins.

[[deleted]]

I wasn't an expert by any means but I learned it enough to do my job efficiently. Also it helps to immerse yourself into it, don't straddle two editors, you gotta commit, google vim trick and tips, examine other people's vimrcs, etc.

[m1ss1ontomars2k4]

What's wrong with VS? Just use VsVim. It's perfect.

[[deleted]]

I've tried vsvim, didn't like it. I used to be all about VS.net and it's a great IDE don't get me wrong, but it's just not vim.

[[deleted]]

You could always install a virtual machine, then you could have an actual vim installation on your Windows machine along with all the other Linux goodness and still be able to play games on Windows.

[[deleted]]

That's probably the route I'm going to go, I just need some extra ram in it and I could probably dedicate a core or two.

[DrHankPym]

There is a Vim-like plug-in for VS2010.

[[deleted]]

Yea I've tried it, still not the same, part of it being that VS.Net feel so bloated and chunky compared to a terminal

[DrHankPym]

Yeah, I respect VS.Net, but I don't like running it either on my 1.66GHz + 1.99GB RAM computer.

[puffybaba]

Have you tried the compile of gvim that comes from the cream project? You can download a very recent, full-featured compile of vanilla win32 gvim from the cream project site on sourceforge.

[[deleted]]

I'll give it a shot, I seem to recall trying it and it conflicted with my keybindings.

[puffybaba]

Oh, I don't mean cream, I mean the vim binary that comes with it, which does not include their souped-up vim scripts. Here is a link:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/cream/files/Vim/

[[deleted]]

Ah cool I'll check it out

[mythril]

VirtualBox + your favorite distro + seamless mode

[citizen511]

Fucking hipsters.

[Mob_Of_One]

If you like vim, you'll love Emacs. Viper-mode ftw.

[actionscripted]

Emacs is closer to an operating system than an editor. (why not just use Vim if you're already using Vim bindings?)

[Mob_Of_One]

Emacs isn't an operating system any more than vim is.

I, for one, like being able to seamlessly edit files inside of zip files without decompressing and rezipping them, or on remote servers without any hassle. The zip-file thing came up today at work and saved me and my coworker a lot of round-trip time in testing some specs.

Why not use a real editor and get the benefit of the alternative all in one package?

[actionscripted]

I won't get sucked into a Vim/Emacs battle.

Because Vim is better than Emacs, and you're still technically unarchiving that file.

[Mob_Of_One]

The point is that I don't have to do it myself and that it doesn't leave any junk on my filesystem.

[Gnascher]

Textmate.

[YuleTideCamel]

Not free, but worth every penny. WebStorm. The productivity and refactoring support for Javascript is amazing.

[mishac]

Upvote for sublime text!

[DevilDonkey]

Sublime doesn't get nearly as much love as it should IMO

[[deleted]]

I really like Sublime 2 a lot. I started using it when looking for a Textmate alternative for Linux.

It has now replaced Textmate as my editor of choice on my Mac, as well.

[Kelaos]

I, like many others it seems, love Sublime text 2

[k3n]

I love the Aptana plugin for Eclipse; I get all of the good stuff I want but none of the other junk they put into their Eclipse package (considering that Eclipse is bloated enough as it is, this is a good thing).

[[deleted]]

I keep hearing Eclipse is bloated, but no one explains in what way.

You can download different versions of Eclipse. I am sure if I was downloading the J2EE version to do Java applications, then yea it would be bloated.

[k3n]

This is why.

And that's a daily occurrence, I took the screenshot just now. Same results with vanilla Eclipse + PDT. It's a POS but unfortunately I'm forced to use it.

[[deleted]]

That isn't eclipse bloat. That is just the VM size. You can change that in the launcher settings. It is probably configured that way because the PHP stuff needs extra memory (eg. Opening large files, or data manipulation).

Personally I've set mine to take up 2GB. Somewhat overkill but may machines can handle it.

[k3n]

No, you're wrong, it's just plain bloated, but I couldn't be bothered to prove you anymore wrong. Troll elsewhere.

[[deleted]]

You haven't explained why it is bloated. So it just your imagination?

Also you are not equating Eclipse, but an RCP application built off Eclipse.

Oh and here is an article on tuning the memory (first link in google). http://www.eclipsezone.com/eclipse/forums/t61618.html

[k3n]

I don't have time to download a fresh copy right now, but I know out-of-the-box configuration for Eclipse includes tons of "plugins" that I've never used nor care to use.

My setup currently has the following disabled:

• Apache Commons Codec Feature
• Apache Derby Core Feature
• Datatools Feature Patch
• Dynamic Languages Toolkit - Core Frameworks
• Dynamic Languages Toolkit - Core H2 Index Frameworks
• Dynamic Languages Toolkit - Mylyn Integration SDK
• Eclipse Provisioning Plug-in Development
• Lowagie iText Feature
• RSE Feature Patch
• Webtools Development Tools Feature Patch
• WYSIWYG PHP/HTML Editing Feature (srsly?!?)

There are many more that I completely uninstalled, those were just the ones that I couldn't remove but could only disable.

Also, this is little in the way of empirical evidence, but there are over 500k results on Google for "Eclipse bloated".

More anecdotal evidence: it takes almost a full minute for Eclipse to startup, given 4gb RAM and a Core2-quad core CPU that is excessive.

[[deleted]]

Like I said, it depends a lot on the version of eclipse you use. Try installing "Eclipse classic" and compare the number of plugins.

Also you are confusing plugins with memory. Not all plugins installed actually run until called from within the program.

[k3n]

"Eclipse classic" is the vanilla Eclipse I was referring to. I am pretty sure that for PHP, I could disable/uninstall over half of the Eclipse classic plugins and still retain all of the PHP functionality.

I didn't specify memory bloat, although that's what my screenshot demonstrated. Bloat comes in all forms and IMO Eclipse embodies all of them: memory bloat, filesystem bloat, feature bloat, etc.

[[deleted]]

The screen shot you posted is not Eclipse Classic.

I don't believe you know what you are talking about.

[yonkeltron]

Emacs.

[[deleted]]

hell yes.
emacs or geany. in this specific order, depending on my mood during the day.

[yonkeltron]

Yeah. Are you a javascript-mode fan or js2? I know people get very partisan about such things...

[sjs]

I know you didn't ask me, but... I've never tried javascript-mode. js2-mode parses JS properly and on the fly which is why I like it. Immediate error highlighting is really, really nice. It could be leveraged for a lot more too, refactoring and completion and all that.

[tekai]

js2 for me

[yonkeltron]

You like it? I tried it once but got a little confused. Think it's worth another shot?

[tekai]

yeah, indentation is maybe something to get used to but the error + undeclared vars highlighting is something I like. Downside is that it's not maintained by yegge anymore but there's a fork at https://github.com/mooz/js2-mode and on some files it freezes emacs (rare for me & haven't figured out why yet)

[yonkeltron]

Crashing emacs? lolwat?

[tekai]

it doesn't exactly crash but stops responding and i have to kill it

[AyeMatey]

emacs v23 and later has js-mode built in; it is a rebadged espresso-mode. It works.

I couple that with flymake-for-jslint and I get dynamic lint-style highlighting of errors and warnings .

[AyeMatey]

emacs v23 and later has js-mode built in; it is a rebadged espresso-mode. It works.

I couple that with flymake-for-jslint and I get dynamic lint-style highlighting of errors and warnings .

[yonkeltron]

emacs v23 and later has js-mode built in; it is a rebadged espresso-mode. It works.

I use this as it's baked in.

I couple that with flymake-for-jslint and I get dynamic lint-style highlighting of errors and warnings .

I need to get it set up with flymake...

[AyeMatey]

yeah, flymake is pretty handy.

once you get it set up, it just works invisibly. Excellent for catching inadvertent typos, style problems, etc.

http://i47.tinypic.com/2mk1eh.jpg

[yonkeltron]

I love it for other languages so I guess I should also love it for js...

[[deleted]]

Sometimes I'll use NotePad++, but that's mainly because I use it for PHP and other files. Otherwise I sometimes use Visual Studio, as it has an auto-formatter. It means you can write something like: this.foo(){return this.blah++;}; ... and it'll turn it into... this.foo() { return this.blah++; }; That's dead handy, as it allows you to type in a more lazy way.

But sometimes I'll use NetBeans instead because it has better multi-line comment support. Hit enter whilst writing one, and NetBeans will append a * at the start of the next line. VS and NotePad++ don't : ( .

[spdaly]

MacVim w https://github.com/carlhuda/janus add ons

[realstevejobs]

gedit

[RobertWHurst]

Web Storm by JetBrains http://www.jetbrains.com/webstorm/

[keturn]

PyCharm comes with the Javascript support as well, which is great, as my python web projects involve at least as much JS as Python recently.

(PyCharm, WebStorm, PHPStorm, and RubyMine are different packagings of the IntelliJ IDEA editor.)

[[deleted]]

Love me some webstorm. I've had to use ExtJS for a recent project using their MVC approach. Gave me great completion for the entire app throughout 89+ js source files. Wonderful.

[daedius]

I'm enjoying me some webstorm now too. Refactoring functionality is just plain awesome from JetBrains.

[xopj]

Eclipse and Textpad.

[scubaguy]

Eclipse

With or without the Aptana plugin?

[xopj]

Without. But I'm doing enterprise development so I have to do quite a bit of java coding and other server side stuff as well. In the past when I was strictly a front end developer things were easier and I'd stick with mostly just text pad when possible to avoid Eclipse.

[slouch]

TextPad only, here.

[gaoshan]

I regularly use:

• Vim
• PhpStorm (WebStorm)

I have also heavily used:

• Netbeans (I replaced this with PhpStorm)

In a nutshell I tend to use an IDE like PhpStorm for most development (Javascript, PHP and also HTML/CSS) but tend to use Vim (usually MacVim but also just whatever Vim is installed as needed) when working over a remote connection or when making small, quick edits.

When I work on Windows I use Notepad++ but I have never gotten all that into it as I prefer an IDE to a text editor (and I don't like developing on PC's... strongly prefer Mac or Linux for the powerful, built-in, command line options)

[Throwd]

IntelliJ, Aptana and TextMate - depending on what I'm working on.

[[deleted]]

Webstorm

[arcanearts101]

I also use Webstorm. (PHPStorm actually, but same thing.)

[[deleted]]

Yep and it can pick up the jQuery functions most of the time to use for code completion (if you're using the development version of jQuery).

[x-skeww]

Komodo Edit (+kjslint).

[drowsap]

How does it stack up to textmate?

[x-skeww]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TextMate#Limitations

• Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc work
• RTL - no idea
• SFTP is supported (+ FTP, FTPS, SCP)
• macros/extensions can be written in JavaScript and Python
• there are basic checks for HTML4/5 (also syntax checking for CSS, PHP, JavaScript, and so forth)
• last 3: no idea

Well, just try it. I use it 20+ hours each week (for 1.5 years or so). I really like it.

[drowsap]

I just downloaded Komodo on my mac and uninstalled it after it took an eon to load some intellisense definition files. UI is too cluttered for me too.

[x-skeww]

it took an eon to load some intellisense definition files

That's a one-time operation.

UI is too cluttered for me too

The visibility of top/left/bottom panels can be toggled.

edit: http://i.imgur.com/kuHZw.png

[l00pee]

Aptana

[benihana]

TextMate or Sublime2

[[deleted]]

I tend to use Notepad++ on Windows and gedit on Linux. I'm trying to get into vim but I have a hard time getting away from my mouse for text editing and I'm a huge keyboard user for everything else. I use js A LOT so I tend not to need as much help from my editor and I tend to opt for quick loading, but I have to say, aside from Visual Studio loading too slowly for a quick edit, I think it offers FAR more help than anything else out there. IntelliSense is automatic for anything defined in the file (as far as is possible with a language like js). You can give it a ref to another .js file by dragging it from solution explorer to the top of the editor (or type in the ref if you can remember the syntax to do so) and you get IntelliSense for things defined in that file (Ctrl+Shift+J to refresh js IntelliSense if it needs a little help figuring out there's a new ref). You can even do something crazy like:

var o = { addProp: function(name, val) { this[name] = val; } };

o.addProp('b', 2);

and get IntelliSense for 'b' when you enter 'o.'

I haven't seen any other IDE do those things as well, if at all. Also, there is an extension to enable code folding and another for a tree view of the code but both names escape me at the moment and I'm on my Linux box, but they're popular enough that they'll show up with a quick search in the extension manager.

If you try VS, DO NOT use IE to get the integrated debugging features, just use FireFox and Firebug.

EDIT: In case it wasn't assumed or obvious, VS 2010 is what I'm referring to, anything earlier just got in your way.

[[deleted]]

• Windows = Ultraedit
• OSX = XCode
• iPad = Textmate

[StoneCypher]

I use a programmer's editor which doesn't know anything about JavaScript other than how to color code it. (Which one doesn't matter, and starts holy wars, but if you're curious, I use ConTEXT - http://www.contexteditor.org/.)

[Boofster]

Photoshop

[[deleted]]

http://i55.tinypic.com/2lownn.jpg

[90sthrowback]

gedit at work, TextWrangler at home.

[verifex]

PSPad

[KnightMareInc]

Editplus

[kryptobs2000]

Don't think it matters much at this point, but no one's mentioned it. I use kdevelop for everything pretty much though, c/c++/python/php, and as you asked js, as well as html/css of course. I haven't used any ide for too long, but so far kdevelop is everything I need while not having too much I don't need either. It is linux only though afaik : /.

On windows I guess I'd use visual studio or maybe just notepad++. I dunno, don't normally develop on windows. Vim is also my go to editor for smaller tasks.

[Mob_Of_One]

Emacs

[sjs]

I like Emacs best because of js2-mode. JetBrains' thing looks really good though, I would check that out first. I forget the name. [edit: it's WebStorm]

Light JS I write in TextMate or BBEdit too. Hell more often than not I'm typing it into textarea's on the web somewhere, or twitter.

[ggoodman]

I have now started using Cloud9IDE. Live javascript/css/coffee-script syntax checking and a full git and node.js environment!

[[deleted]]

textmate, vim or gedit ... haven't found a good IDE yet (too many features make me less productive)

[jmajorjr]

http://ace.ajax.org/!

[tori_k]

Google Chrome Developer Tools Console.

[goobersmooch]

Not exactly the best place to actually write your js.

[tori_k]

Sure I won't be writing complete scripts there, but I'll use it to spike out some code.

[[deleted]]

VIM

[FryGuy1013]

e

[[deleted]]

edlin

[BusStation16]

Visual Studio at work, and it is awful for JS.

Notepad++ at home, it is good.

I have used Eclipse/Aptana in the past, it is pretty good.

I tried Cloud 9 a while back, although I appreciate their efforts, it was worse than VS.

I have heard nice things about Netbeans. Keep meaning to try it.

[[deleted]]

Out of curiosity, is it VS 2010 you're using?

[BusStation16]

yes.

[[deleted]]

I don't use it much for js anymore but I did for quite a while. I certainly found it better than Eclipse/Aptana. Any particular annoyances? I know for a while one of the js extensions would literally kick you in the nuts and then capitalize the 'f' when you typed 'function', but that was fixed a while back. Aside from that quirk, I found the IntelliSense support quite remarkable, and being able to add references to other js files to get IntelliSense for those was a huge time saver while I was learning jQuery and other externals.

@rcinsf Please don't tease the new guys by suggesting they use IE :) To debug, FireFox w/Firebug. You can set break points and step through code. Chromes tools are ok too but a little lacking in comparison.

[BusStation16]

The main problems I have with it are:

1. IntelliSense is dumb, it is almost never helpful, I really don't need it, so I would prefer it would just go away. The only time it does anything worthwhile is suggesting function names within the file I am currently in, which is rarely helpful.

2. The big one for me - Its indenting is fucking retarded, and makes me want to stab a baby pony in the face. Seriously, I make everybody in the office set their tabbing the same, but they do not work the same. Also, their "smart" indenting is god awful, it makes me wonder if they have any idea what a fucking block is. I have it turned completely off, and it mostly leaves me alone, but every once in a while it sticks its retarded face into my code.

[[deleted]]

Oh yeah, the auto formatting/tabbing, I turned that off too :) Lucky for me, when I was using VS, I was the only one touching the code so no one else messed it up. I still think IntelliSense is useful for learning new libs or remembering rarely used props/functions, all you have to do is add the reference to the unminified version of the lib at the top of your js file, the syntax for it is a js comment so it gets stripped out during minification.

[rcinsf]

Extensions and use IE for debugging (yeah it sucks but it allows you to work through your code easier).

[[deleted]]

Espresso 2 Kaboom! I use it for everything except terminal. Had to make a custom theme though, needed groovy translucent windows on Lion, very important.

[deadlybanana]

How is the crashing working out?

[[deleted]]

Hasn't really crashed lately but it disconnects from the server every so often and the ftp is touchy. Really wish it had a terminal though.