Javascript outside the browser

Question

I'm looking at writing some code in Javascript to run as a command line program, unrelated to browsers or the Web; it would need access to files and directories as normal for a command line utility. What's the best Windows implementation of Javascript for this scenario, with regard to stability and performance?

Answer 1

I would take a look at Nodejs

• Wylie: Node.js may be too much for rwallace's needs, but V8, which Node.js runs on, might be a simpler alternative. Node.js is for writing servers, and I think V8 may be more appropriate for this use.
• rwallace: Right, I don't need the server framework, but V8 definitely looks like a strong contender. I'd be interested if anyone knows how it stacks up against the alternatives.
• Nick H: @Wylie true, but V8 isn't a commandline app in itself. You'd have to compile a wrapper to V8 to process a script and run it. Node does have an API for server stuff, but it's equally well equipped to do local file I/O; the same is true of many scripting languages like Ruby and Python so I wouldn't let that put you off.
• kinakuta: V8 is an engine more than an api. I'm not aware of there being native support for the types of operations you mentioned - e.g. file I/O. Yes, Node is primarily looked at for it's server capabilities, but it is more of a developed api than going straight to V8. Maybe there are some other apis written to run on v8 I don't know about yet, but I'm not sure working with v8 directly is the way you want to go.
• Nick H: Correction to my own comment - V8 does come with a shell. I'm not sure how much of a file IO API you get with plain V8, so Node may still be worth looking at.

Answer 2

I use jsdb or in windows cscript. In some editors (Editplus in my case, i've also use Aptana) you can configure running js-files directly from within the editor.

Ofcourse in jsfiddle.net you could create javascript unrelated to the browser (apart from the output, which can be [console.]logged or written to some div. In some cases it can be a problem that the code is evalled though.

Further, this blog entry may give you extra information

• James Westgate: Any link to Stoyan's site is a +1 from me :)