JavaScript Shell 1.2

New features and bug fixes in JavaScript Shell 1.2:

  • Multiline input. You can now insert line breaks using Shift+Enter and paste multiline scripts. Edward Lee ("Mardak" on irc.mozilla.org) added this feature.
  • Fixed the bookmarklet version to work in Firefox 1.0.3 (it was broken due to the fix for bug 289074). Edward Lee was the first to point out this problem and helped me fix it.
  • Fixed print() to not bring up the File > Print dialog.
  • Fixed blink() to work in IE (using border instead of outline) and Opera.
  • Made the feature that lets you click anywhere to focus the input box work in Opera. It still doesn't work in IE.
  • Fixed multiline output in Opera. It still appears all on one line in IE.
  • Fixed the bookmarklet version to have a vertical scrollbar when needed on Firefox trunk. (I might be working around a bug in Firefox trunk.)

I'm aware of several new problems introduced by the multiline input feature:

  • In Opera, Enter inserts a line break and *then* submits.
  • In IE, multiline output isn't broken over lines.
  • In Firefox 1.0.x, but not on trunk, a scrollbar appears if you have a few dozen lines of input.

JavaScript Shell 1.1 is still available.

7 Responses to “JavaScript Shell 1.2”

  1. Ted Mielczarek Says:

    Awesome! I’ve wanted multiline pasting for a while now.

  2. Phil Robinson Says:

    Great! I watched your website all day yesterday hoping that there’d be an update. When I first tried to run shell after updating Firefox to 1.0.3, I thought something had gone terribly wrong with the install, but then I realized that some of the bug fixes must have ‘broken’ the shell. Thanks for the great work!

  3. Screwtape Says:

    This is a purely selfish request, and probably offensive after you’ve put so much hard-work and effort into creating the shell in the first place, and keeping updated – but just in case you get incredibly bored one day – I don’t suppose there’s any way of getting the shell to (a) open in the Firefox sidebar, and (b) still have access to the DOM of the main page?

    The bookmarklet version is almost exactly what I want, except I have to keep flipping between tabs to see what I’m doing.

  4. Prakash Kailasa Says:

    First of all, thanks for the great piece of work.

    One minor observation: I was runing the pre1.2 version (http://www.squarefree.com/shell/shell1.2pre.html) yesterday which had background color of the input area set to a different color, so it is prominently visible. However, in the released version, the background property of the ‘input’ class seems to be commented.

    I uncommented it in my copy, but I am curious to find out why it was commented.

  5. Jesse Ruderman Says:

    I found the background distracting because it would shrink from 2.5 lines to 1 line when I submitted an input. I like the way the input doesn’t change appearance when I submit it, so I took out the background.

  6. davidbisset.com Says:

    JavaScript Shell

    A command-line interface for JavaScript and DOM… Firefox bookmarklet available. [ via ]

  7. Sebastián Marconi Says:

    A minor enhancement: to auto-refresh the shell when the opener context change add this to the funcion go (line 600).
    if (! _win.Shell)
    init();

    Thanks for this great app.