DLRScript

Released: DLRScript 0.55 (Jul 24, 2008)

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 20:05:56 GMT

All I can say is that we are now working with Silverlight2 beta 2. Some things may have taken a step back (sorry).

Obviously getting this thing working with beta 2 was a bit of a pain.

Updated Release: DLRScript 0.55 (Jul 24, 2008)

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 20:05:56 GMT

All I can say is that we are now working with Silverlight2 beta 2. Some things may have taken a step back (sorry).

Obviously getting this thing working with beta 2 was a bit of a pain.

Created Release: DLRScript 0.55 (Jul 24, 2008)

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 19:43:25 GMT

All I can say is that we are now working with Silverlight2 beta 2. Some things may have taken a step back (sorry).

Obviously getting this thing working with beta 2 was a bit of a pain.

UPDATED RELEASE: DLRScript 0.5 (Apr 12, 2008)

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 14:18:21 GMT

It's been a long time coming, but this version offers 3 new features:
# Files loaded from the web server via the src element of the script tag. It also lets you provide a script to run after the file has been loaded
# Improved DLRJScript performance. There is (an admittedly unscientific and simplistic) test page in the demo site that tests Client JavaScript versus DLRJScript. You have to click the DLRJScript twice (it's a .NET thing); actually what I found for the test is that the DLRJScript is definitely faster(now). I tried this in the last build and found DLRJScript to be slower. I will eventually add these improvements to the other languages.
# Improved DLRJScript Exception reporting (JScript errors now show you the source code)

#2 above is a precursor to getting a DLRJScript that is more compatible with client-side JavaScript.

There is a bug that I am aware of. For some reason, the page never comes back from showing a loading message in the browser window (even though it is fully loaded).

UPDATED WIKI: Home

DevTheo — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 14:12:44 GMT

Project Description
DLRScript is a SilverLight 2.0 sample using the DLR. It lets you use DLR-based languages in the Script tag of a normal HTML (or .aspx, or .jsp or .php, etc.) page.

News:

NEWS FEED

DLRScript Update

Tuesday, March 18, 2008 | From DLRScript

In the next week or so I will be releasing a new version of my DLRScript. It will have external file sourcing/loading via the src attribute (I have that working right now). I would release it today except for 1 issue.

what is in the file is this

//JS:
jsapi.alert("Hi JScript here");

#Python
jsapi.alert("Hi Python here")

#Ruby
$jsapi.alert("Hi, I'm Ruby and YOU are NOT!")

Here's the issue. I think I discovered a bug (in my code). When you try to launch multiple alert boxes you get 1 of them and errors for the rest. Which makes sense to me (as you the user need to click the button on one of the Alerts. I will correct this.

I also discovered another subtle little issue that I want to account for. The problem is that since we are moving code Asynchronously there are multiple threads involved. My current development executes code as it gets code back, but it should execute this stuff in the order it appears on the page (I'll be correcting that one too)

Probably the next week or so, and then I'll be moving forward on my other ideas (most notably the Object Model).

Ruby DOM??

While I'm on the subject of Object Models, I had some discussions with some friends to see if I should duplicate client-JavaScript's DOM model or if I should create something else.

The wisdom from both seemed to be that duplicating client-JS' DOM for JScript and Python would be good, but you Ruby guys would something that is Rubyish (no, not rubish... I said Rubyish). I was wondering if I might get a Ruby programmer to help me understand what that means (cause neither of my friends can answer that question).

So here is the question. If you had the ability to write Ruby code as a client language (and you can with DLRScript) what would the framework look like?

DLRScript release 0.2.2a

Tuesday, March 04, 2008 | From DLRScript

I skipped blogging about the last release mainly because I have been busy trying to find work (as well as preparing for a training I'm doing this month). Anyway, I thought I should put out a little update, so my readers know that I have made a new release.

New Language!

If you've seen the download page you will notice that I have a new language, and no, it's not the language I wanted to add. It's not Ruby. I figured out how to get DLR JScript (and I'm calling it that so as to not confuse it with JavaScript the client-side code -- which exposes some objects to DLRScript)

Object Cleanup

With the last release I cleaned up a little code, and renamed the DomHelper object to jsapi. I'm still not 100% thrilled with that name, but for now it works. Basically this object exposes certain DOM functionalities to DLRScript languages as well as exposes a couple JavaScript (client-side) functions/features like alert, confirm, prompt, and eval (although the latter still seems to be working a little strangely). I will be adding setTimeout/clearTimeout once I have the time. They are there, but not very usable (or useful). You can probably use setTimeout, but won't be able to stop it, and only against client-side (non-DLR) JavaScript functions. At some point I'll make it possible to hook up your DLRScript language's functions to setTimeout/clearTimeout

I also felt like I should respect the camel-case of aspect of JavaScript, so I switched the functions to camel-case (first character is lowercase then the first char of each "word" is uppercase).

Additional Object abstraction

I normally wouldn't do this, but I needed to do this so I could begin to introduce a few streamlined properties. Here's the objects:

HtmlObject
- HtmlDocument
- HtmlElement

You can probably guess that HtmlObject is a parent to the other two (and you would be correct). One of the things I introduced was a cross-browser "text" property for all objects returned from a getElementById (or the document object).

This also let me enable a number of pieces of functionality you would fully expect (stuff like attaching/detaching events, adding/removing new elements/attributes, reading/setting properties/tag attribute/styles, etc.

I will eventually start beefing this up so that you don't have to resort to using the function to read a property (or to read a style)

What's next?

Well, I really, really, really(!!) want to get IronRuby working. I'm hoping that after Mix08 that should be a little easier to do. Once I do that then I think I'll do a little bit of work on the object model, and will start looking at adding things like communications support. I also NEED to get the script tags to load DLR scripts from the web server (and more importantly cache them!)

I also want to test inter-language communication... maybe Python is better at a task then say Ruby (not sure, so don't be shooting me over the comment), but you want to create more of a DSL (which Ruby is stellar at)... You could potentially write some functions in Python and use them from Ruby.

So basically I have my work cut out for me... Oh yeah, the DLRScript Project is here. It comes with a couple sample files for you.

DLRScript Project - Revealed...

Tuesday, February 26, 2008 | From DLRScript

[You know I hate making announcements... It seems like my expectations are always higher than what actually happens. I've announced stuff before that I thought was somewhat impressive -- maybe not though-- with like zero interest]

This weekend I created a new project over at CodePlex called "DLRScript." I put this ominous description - "DLRScript is a SilverLight 2.0 sample using the DLR. It is based on the DLRConsole found in the sample in the SilverLight 2.0 SDK, but with a new advanced twist (check back here for more info later... I want to be the first to do this which is why I'm mum on the subject) "

Background

So let me tell you the background. I recently was pondering the new upcoming beta of SilverLight 2.0 (something I have been waiting impatiently for a year). I started thinking about some of my past demos and playing around with it. You see I have been using it to get rid of JavaScript altogether and replace JS with C#. I contemplated creating a project for that functionality a few months back, but with SilverLight 2.0 so far away it didn't seem like a great idea at the time. I also have begun recently playing with some of the DLR languages. I have to say that I really like Python (I wish I was better with it), and Ruby is very intriguing to me as well.

I started thinking about how with SilverLight 2.0 we could actually add new languages that could be put into a script tag. So I built it..

A picture is worth 1,000 words

Here's whit it looks like-

<script type="DLRPython">   1:  
def clickHandler():
        DomHelper.alert("Hello from Python")        
eh = DomHelper.createEventHandler("clickHandler")
document.GetElementByID("clickMe").AttachEvent("onclick", eh)
</script>

If you look closely I have a custom object called DomHelper. The reason that exists is that I am currently having problems adding namespaces (but I can easily add variables to the script environment). DomHelper knows how to do a couple things. Send Alerts, and Create An Event Handler from a method name (there are others, but I need to work on them).

That "document" variable is not the standard DOM document, but a reference to the SilverLight environment's HtmlPage.Document. Right now I am having problems with setting the property values of DOM Element (I will be fixing that soon).

Why did you do this (JavaScript is fine)?

I'll blame George Tsiokos again (he was the one who told me he didn't want to have to extensively know JavaScript). I personally don't like that we web developers need to be fluent in a bunch of things : HTML, Language on the Server (be it C#, PHP, python, or Ruby), CSS, and JavaScript. I know that the markup stuff is fairly simple for most of us... it's having to be fluent in 2 languages is what stinks. So my goal is for a Ruby on the Rails developer to be able to use Ruby both client-side and server-side.

Some caveats (it's an alpha what do you want?)

You need to have the SilverLight 1.1 Alpha Refresh (from September) installed.
The project is a VS2008 project so you'll need that and the VS2008 Tools for Silverlight alpha (I think this came out in December)
I have exactly 1 DLR language working: Python.
I will try to get Ruby working shortly.
I have code in place for DLRJScript, but it doesn't work (I'm getting an initialization error).
I don't have the files to try VBx.
Everything will change after Mix and the release of the beta (unless someone from MS wants to give me a pre-release <wink />)
The code is a mess right now, so consideer it a rough prototype (that works)

Future Plans

Get ALL existing DLR Languages working (the one I haven't mentioned yet is IronScheme... are there others?)
Improve the support for all the basic JavaScript environment functions (prompt, setTimeout, clearTimeout and eval would be nice to actually have working)
Be able to fully traverse the DOM (this may be working... I just may need to figure out how to get it working... a gold star to anyone who figures it out before me)
Be able to load modules from the file system (setting a the source attribute for a DLR Language)
Come up with a sane way to compress a python (or other language) script (maybe there already is a way that I don't know about). Python appears to be a little more chatty (and being able to minimize the download)

The project will be available to download shortly...

NEWS FEED

UPDATED RELEASE: DLRScript 0.3.1 (Mar 13, 2008)

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 14:11:34 GMT

This release adds 2 things...

# RUBY... *RUBY _RUBY!!!_* - It's been a hard struggle for me to get there, but now I have 3 languages!
# I also discovered that MS already took care of hooking up alert, etc via the HtmlPage.Window object. I am now using this which means the extra JavaScript I had to reference to get alert, etc. is no longer necessary (and removed from the test code). Among other things they had rigged up Eval so I was able to release some additional functionality which is currently untested.
!! The Future
So my plans for the future are this. I want to get the various Script languages to have access to a model as close to the one client-side JavaScript has as I can. That way I can potentially load up an Ajax framework like say ext.js, MS Ajax, jquery, prototype.js, YUI, etc. in the DLR JScript environment and then manipulate it via one of the other scripting languages. (So Ruby using Ext.js or jquery).
I also want to try to improve on the model in my own manner (maybe create a complete Ajax framework in Python and Ruby).

CREATED RELEASE: DLRScript 0.5 (Apr 12, 2008)

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 14:07:51 GMT

CREATED RELEASE: DLRScript 3.1 (Mar 13, 2008)

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 13:57:50 GMT

UPDATED RELEASE: DLRScript 0.2.2.1 (Mar 10, 2008)

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 13:41:12 GMT

The big deal here is Silverlight 2.0 beta 1 support.

I am gaining progress with Ruby, but still it doesn't work (I will probably email John Lam before the next release so I can get Ruby working (it's the one I really want to get working, and I know I'm really close).

Basically Ruby doesn't see my global jsapi and document objects.

(Sorry I screwed up the version numbering)

CREATED RELEASE: DLRScript 0.2.2.1 (Mar 10, 2008)

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 18:58:43 GMT

CREATED RELEASE: DLRScript 0.2.2a (Mar 04, 2008)

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 15:33:06 GMT

I added a new Language with this release! Unfortunately it was not the language I wanted to add. I wanted to add Ruby, but instead I figured out DLRJScript.

I will have to wait until the SilverLight beta 2 comes out in the next couple of days (Ruby is not a SilverLight assembly as far as I can tell).. I am working from a recent build downloaded from SVN... even the Alpha IronPython doesn't work, so I need to wait on MS to update SilverLight I guess).

As it sits you can now use DLR JScript and/or IronPython right now. I need to test to see if the 2 are interoperable (not sure they may be)

The benefit this gives you is that if Python can do something a little easier than DLR JScript can then you could potentially have multiple languages in the page and call Python functions from JavaScript (I need to experiment with this first, but feel free to try it yourself).

UPDATED RELEASE: DLRScript 0.2a (Feb 27, 2008)

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 15:09:29 GMT

Ok, I made a few changes from yesterday's release.

Here's the couple breaking changes:
* I renamed the DomHelper object to jsapi (within your scripts). I did this because I decided that I really didn't like the original name and my goal with this object is really to expose a bit of functionality to you that already exists in client-side JavaScript
* I made some changes to the document object (more on that in a sec) and changed the functions properties to camel-case

Here's the improvements:
* there are 3 new objects the prop up the client-side. In 0.1, I was having problems with the being able to write properties of the DOM objects, so you get the value of say the innerHTML property but couldn't write to it or really make any additions at all. I ended up wrapping the standard HtmlObject, HtmlElement, and HtmlDocument objects with my own class. This let's me do things like
** added "text" property to all Dom object (and this property works cross-browser)
** reading and writing to properties now works
** reading and writing to style attributes should now work
** reading and writing to tag attributes should now work
** adding and removing child elements (or new elements) is now possible
** detaching of events is now possible
* jsapi now support confirm, prompt, alert, and eval. eval (against JavaScript or DOM items is now possible) is still not acting 100% correct (I can't get my alert test to work). setTimeout and clearTimeout are now hooked up but you can only hook up a client-side JavaScript function to the functionality. I may go ahead and set this up so that it can be used against a DLR Script function (one in your script tag).

The next thing I'll be looking at is IronRuby support.

UPDATED RELEASE: DLRScript 0.2a (Feb 27, 2008)

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 15:08:36 GMT

RELEASED: DLRScript 0.1a (Feb 26, 2008)

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 18:34:31 GMT

First release for DLRScript (use DLR languages within an HTML Script tag... It uses the SilverLight 2.0 alpha to host the DLR)
See my blog post [url:http://www.theruntime.com/blogs/jaykimble/archive/2008/02/26/dlrscript-project-revealed.aspx]

The zip contains the full source and VS2008 project.

UPDATED RELEASE: DLRScript 0.1a (Feb 26, 2008)

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 18:34:31 GMT

UPDATED WIKI: Home

DevTheo — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 18:32:43 GMT

Project Description
DLRScript is a SilverLight 2.0 sample using the DLR. It lets you use DLR-based languages in the Script tag of a normal HTML (or .aspx, or .jsp or .php, etc.) page.

News:

NEWS FEED

CREATED RELEASE: DLRScript 0.1a (Feb 26, 2008)

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 16:35:17 GMT

See my blog post [url:http://www.theruntime.com/blogs/jaykimble/archive/2008/02/26/dlrscript-project-revealed.aspx]

The zip contains the full source and VS2008 project.

UPDATED WIKI: Home

DevTheo — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 16:30:10 GMT

Project Description
DLRScript is a SilverLight 2.0 sample using the DLR. It is based on the DLRConsole found in the sample in the SilverLight 2.0 SDK, but with a new advanced twist (check back here for more info later... I want to be the first to do this which is why I'm mum on the subject)

More info will follow soon...