Helma 1.5.2

Hot on the heels of Helma 1.5.1 and in order to clear the slate for Helma/Rhino 1.6, which will bring us E4X support amongst other goodies, Helma 1.5.2 has been released , fixing a potentially annoying error logging issue.

RFC 4329 application-ecmascript

From RFC 4329 - Scripting Media Types ...

Various unregistered media types have been used in an ad-hoc fashion

   to label and exchange programs written in ECMAScript and JavaScript.

   These include:



      +-----------------------------------------------------+

      | text/javascript          | text/ecmascript          |

      | text/javascript1.0       | text/javascript1.1       |

      | text/javascript1.2       | text/javascript1.3       |

      | text/javascript1.4       | text/javascript1.5       |

      | text/jscript             | text/livescript          |

      | text/x-javascript        | text/x-ecmascript        |

      | application/x-javascript | application/x-ecmascript |

      | application/javascript   | application/ecmascript   |

      +-----------------------------------------------------+



   Use of the "text" top-level type for this kind of content is known to

   be problematic.  This document thus defines text/javascript and text/

   ecmascript but marks them as "obsolete".  Use of experimental and

   unregistered media types, as listed in part above, is discouraged.

   The media types,



      * application/javascript

      * application/ecmascript



   which are also defined in this document, are intended for common use

   and should be used instead.



   This document defines equivalent processing requirements for the

   types text/javascript, text/ecmascript, and application/javascript.

   Use of and support for the media type application/ecmascript is

   considerably less widespread than for other media types defined in

   this document.  Using that to its advantage, this document defines

   stricter processing rules for this type to foster more interoperable

   processing.

Helma 1.5.1 ready to download

Helma 1.5.1 has been released today. It's like Helma 1.5.0, only better :-)

Get it now!

Here's what changed: Native HopObject methods are now easier to overwrite. HopObject constructors aren't removed from the global scope anymore just because they aren't referenced during global code compilation. For scripted java objects, getResource() and getResources() have been implemented. Improved support for both PostgreSQL and MySQL databases. Improved object/relational mapping. Fixed a file path issue on Mac OS X, added a workaround for a shortcoming in Safari's ETag support and better error reporting. Updated Javamail to version 1.4, jakarta commons-fileupload to 1.1.1, and jakarta commons-io to 1.2.

Aptana - Eclipse reincarnated as a Javascript IDE

I've recently been using JSEclipse , the Eclipse plugin from the InterAKT folks and much prefer it over the WST components that the Eclipse project provided so far. Now I finally got around to making the switch to the Aptana Web IDE and I think I like where this project seems to be heading. Check it out, if you haven't already!

Apparently based on the Eclipse code base and promised to be open source itself, Aptana is targeted mainly at Javascript development instead of Eclipse's Java core audience. With the open and flexible way in which it allows to integrate code auto-completion and API documentation of different Javascript libraries, it could well be an ideal IDE for Helma based development.

An interesting side project to come out of this effort is scriptdoc.org , which addresses shortcomings in the javadoc-style of documenting source code and API's, when used in Javascript environments such as Helma.

Update: 8.9.2007, 11:22: Unfortunately, the Aptana project has changed from the Eclipse Public License to the Aptana Public License and Aptana is no longer open source .

Update 2: 23.9.2007, 10:09: The Aptana project has announced that due to the community reactions they intend to also license the APL code under the GPL .

Building the Conversational Web

In the fight against drive-by-commenting, we've come one step closer towards "It just works". The changed behavior of the coComment bookmarklet should make following your conversations on the web much more enjoyable and make the service more accessible to new users.

Beyond that honorable cause, the newest release of coComment also makes the first step towards seemlessly making the rest of the web conversational, one page at a time. The true usefullness of this might not become apparent until our next release :-)

The new Firefox extension does a beautiful job and continuously learns from its user base about pages and comment forms where it should auto-enable coCommenting. On pages where commenting is not possible, it automatically adds a commenting fascility to the page, so that coComment users can leave comments on any page on the web.

This same automatic-mode can now also be leveraged by any browser that supports user scripts . Combine that with the bookmarklet and you get almost the same functionality that the extension provides for Firefox and Flock in other browsers such as Opera , Safari (using Creammonkey ), Internet Explorer (using Trixie ) or Epiphany

ILoveJackDaniels already reports it to be working in Opera and I have tested it in Safari with Creammonkey.

Let us know how it works for you , when you use coComment as a user script!

Drosera steps in to debug Safari

The latest addition to the WebKit open source tools is Drosera, a Javascript debugger for any WebKit apps - inluding Safari.

I could certainly use it right now but it isn't quite ready yet... only able to step in... without being able to see where you are stepping in to... it's still kind of like a safari in the fog . But nice to see the fog is lifting!

Helma 1.5.0 has been released!

>>> Helma 1.5 RC2 is ready