How to run/test JavaScript?

Hello,

I'm reading David Flanagan's "javascript: The Definitive Guide, 6th ed".

It only actually tells users how to run JS code on page 311, where users are told of the following solutions:

"Client-side JavaScript code is embedded within HTML documents in four ways:

• Inline, between a pair of <script> and </script> tags
• From an external file specified by the src attribute of a <script> tag
• In an HTML event handler attribute, such as onclick or onmouseover
• In a URL that uses the special javascript: protocol

."

I was wondering what professional JS developers use to write and test their code: Do they use a good text editor with syntax high-lighting + autocompletion, hit F5 in the browser to reload the page every time they make a change, and use some add-on in the browser to investigate errors? Or are there full-fledged IDE's similar to MS VisualStudio for non-web languages?

Thank you.
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<strike>Edit: For instance, I wrote this piece of code, which doesn't work (nothing displayed on screen when calling index.html), but Firefox doesn't display any error. How would I go trying to understand why it's not working?</strike>

Firebug showed that a .js file shouldn't contain <script>...</script> lines.

Are you using an external script file?

If you are using an external stylesheet, you don't need to add the <script> tags.

I use WAMP since I started PHP so I use it all the time to test anything really. I use Firefox and Firebug and like you said, especailly javascript I always do a hard refresh (F5) after changing anything to make sure it's still working.

Also, try putting a console.log() statement with variables to check their value.

Hope this helps,

Regards

NM.

Thanks for the input.

So the standard tools used by JS developers:
- Firefox and the Firebug add-on
- a good text editor with syntax highlighting, and ideally code autocompletion
- hit F5 to test every time a change is made to the JS source code
- console.log() statement with variables to check their value.

Could someone recommend a good text editor for Windows that supports JS code autocompletion?

Number 1: is a 100% must in my opinion and I think in most developers opinions.

Number 2: I agree with using an editor with syntax highlighting but I don't think autocompletion is a necessity. Each to their own but that kind of thing annoys me.

Number 3: This is what I do and it's mainly because i'm relatively new to javascript. I skimmed the surface off it a couple of years ago but never got into any real depth. I've taken it up again in the last month or so.

Number 4: I only console.log() something if I get an unexpected result, for instance I might get an error in firebug, or sometimes the console.log() might not work inside a function so I know if it's a passed parameter then the issue could potentially be there so it even gives you an idea of where the error could lie. I think it will log most errors for you.

hope this helps.

Kind regards,

NM.