Javascript, V8, resources

Question

I've been learning a lot of Javascript lately, and I'm amazed by the expressive power of the language (as well as annoyed by some of its quirks, but no language lacks those). I want to start using it more.

I'm svn coing V8 as I write, and wanted to know what good resources are out there to consider. Is there some sort of standard library? What should I look at?

How feasible is it to take javascript as a desktop scripting language, for those one-time scripts I usually write in python?

I didn't even get started yet, so I might have missed a vital question. Is there anything else I should know, or think about?

I know this is a pretty broad question, aimed at nowhere in particular, so thank you very much for your time!

• Jeremy: I know this is a pretty broad question, aimed at nowhere in particular -- It's too bad that SO isn't meant for these types of questions :-/
• salezica: No? Doesn't it target software tools commonly used by programmers? That's from the SO faq.
• Jeremy: Check out the What kind of questions should I not ask here? in the FAQs.
• Tobias Cohen: Try asking one question at a time. It's not really possible to cover all that in a single answer.
• salezica: @Jeremy I honestly don't see how this question goes against any of the regulations, or the SO spirit I've come to know in my time here.

Answer 1

You may be interested in CommonJS which is pretty much the closest thing the Javascript community has to a "standard library". From that page:

With CommonJS-compliant systems, you can use JavaScript to write:

• Server-side JavaScript applications
• Command line tools
• Desktop GUI-based applications
• Hybrid applications (Titanium, Adobe AIR)

Answer 2

If you want a fully functional environment based on javascript that has access to things like the filesystem, network (udp, tcp/http), and the like, I'd recommend looking at node.js -- http://nodejs.org/

Its uses v8 and is actively developed by Ryan Dahl and the core team, and is backed by Joyent -- http://www.joyent.com/.

Its got a fantastic community (come on over and say hi on irc at #node.js on freenode) and something like 10 modules or more published a day on http://npmjs.org/ package manager.

Edit

Also, I'll point out that while the node was originally looking at CommonJS in terms of direction, they've since pretty much entirely split away from that community. Its got its own module system and apis. Some overlap, but compliance is not a goal of the project at the moment.

• salezica: Would you say the non-compliance could be problematic? I've heard a lot of praise about node.js, should I bet for solid implementation over compliance?
• Josh: I personally don't think its a huge issue. They are going for progress, progress, progress rather than committee, committee, committee. They're focused on building world class networking tools and I find the community to be super active and engaging. It also helps that some folks over are trying to offer choice with their spidernode project -- blog.zpao.com/post/4620873765/about-that-hybrid-v8monkey-engine