JSAN, the JavaScript Archive Network

Mon

Jul 25
2005

listen

JSAN, the JavaScript Archive Network

It seems every Perl hacker I spend any more than five minutes with these days is neck deep in JavaScript. Pal David Wheeler has been bending my ear about his port of Perl's Test::Harness to a JS Test.Simple for some weeks now. Michael Schwern on a recent visit toted not a small number of pounds of JavaScript tomes about with him. I'm not quite sure what the tie is, quite frankly. It's not simply that JavaScript is on the rise in general amongst scripters and non: there's something about innate messiness, ubiquity, and hidden powers that just appeals to those who use Perl;

Now comes JSAN, the JavaScript Archive Network, describing itself as a "comprehensive resource for Open Source JavaScript libraries and software" or "CPAN".replace(/CP/, "JS"). As the name suggests, it is driven by a band of Perlites, led by Casey West.

As we suspected and found in building our CodeZoo site--of Java components, in our case--simply knowing that someone has written something that'll make your coding life that much easier is a trick in itself. And a valuable one at that.

The most interesting find in the archive thus far has to be JSAN library itself, allowing scripters to import rather than <script src="... other libraries:

 // Or in a library.
  try {
      JSAN.use('Some.Library');
  } catch (e) {
      alert("Requires JSAN");
  }

Congrats to Casey et al. I look forward to watching and using JSAN as it grows.

tags: | comments: 4 | Sphere It
submit:

Previous | Next

3 TrackBacks

TrackBack URL for this entry: http://blogs.oreilly.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-t.cgi/4212

» Day 40: Radar, Hack-A-Thon, Merciless Refactoring from Casey West

JavaScript Archive Network Brian Cassidy worked on much more style and XHTML validity changes. Added feeds to Planet JavaScript. Got some good press on... Read More

» RFE: Server-Side Javascript? from dekstop weblog

http://blogs.oreillynet.com/mt/trackback/567 Read More

» RFE: Server-Side Javascript? from dekstop weblog

I just read another rant about the many weaknesses of PHP, and of course I'm in complete agreement. Over the last years I've come to use PHP more often than I would have liked to, simply due to the fact... Read More

Comments: 4

David Flanagan [07.25.05 12:19 PM]

One of the great things about Casey's JSAN library is the guidance it gives to module authors about how to strurcture the modules, how to place them in namespaces, and how to declare a list of the symbols that the module may export.

Casey's conventions are tied to his use() function, however, and are not general enough for modules designed to be imported with static <script> tags...

I'm seeking ideas about JavaScript modules, namespaces and imports over at my blog:
http://www.davidflanagan.com/blog/2005_07.html#000069

Adam K [07.25.05 12:49 PM]

Luckily, most of the current issues relating to JSAN.use are temporary, and there's a number of alternative ways of loading modules on the way already.

Loading modules with static tags was solved about 2 hours ago, for example :)

Michael G Schwern [07.26.05 12:28 PM]

Its my fault.

I was toting around all those JavaScript tomes because of a small web dev contract job that was a fine excuse to get paid to learn the last five years of web development which until now I had been studiously ignoring. I became horrified to discover that JavaScript had no include function. My usual mode when I encounter horrifying things about technology about which I have no understanding is to bitch to all the smart people around me and hope they'll fix it.

An include() for JavaScript

JSAN: A HOWTO Guide

It worked! :)

I think the "attraction" to JavaScript is simply that if you want to do anything interesting on a web page its the only game in town. Its only now that its starting to be supported in something like a useable fashion. Couple that with a web browser we don't completely hate (Firefox), somewhat useful development tools (Firefox Web Developer extension) and a major corporation pouring development time into a sensible framework (Google -> Ajax) and you finally have something you don't immediately want to curse and spit on.