Scripted's new take on browser-based JavaScript editing

Developers working at VMware's SpringSource division have released an open source browser-based code editor called Scripted. The application is completely written in HTML, CSS and JavaScript and runs in a browser on the user's machine on a Node.js instance. The project is called Scripted and is based on the editor component of Eclipse Orion.

The goal of Scripted is to be lightweight and fast while still supporting features that developers are used to from using IDEs, such as content assist and the ability to work well with external module systems. Scripted also offers syntax highlighting, formatting suggestions and a dual window interface to edit two files at once.

Scripted in action

The developers say they want to keep their options open. Although there is a trend in the industry towards cloud-based collaboration, they still see merit in a local editor which retains its functionality offline. But, by building Scripted with web technologies it gives them the ability to adapt to using cloud-based collaboration in the future. Scripted is currently targeted at JavaScript development; the developers are interested in supporting similar languages such as CoffeeScript and TypeScript in the future.

To run Scripted, users will need to have a recent version of Node.js installed. The editor can then be cloned from GitHub and executed with the scr command on the command line once the application has been added to the user's path. Scripted is licensed under the Eclipse Public License.

(fab)