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Recently, I have been doing some research into where all the modern JavaScript engines stand in terms of implementation of ECMA 3 and in cross-polination of proprietary features. I came across some rather interesting features of Microsoft JScript that I sure as hell didn’t know, and maybe you didn’t either.

First of all, it’s worth noting that some of these features may originally have been written for the server platform and not the browser. Because the JScript engine is modular, Microsoft uses it in a lot of places. Thats also why you can do browser scripting in VBScript, much like you can write ASP pages in VBScript or JScript, and similarly for .NET.

Feature 1: Enumerator

Standard: JScript 3.0+
Support: Internet Explorer 4.0+

Syntax:
var myEnumObj = new Enumerator([collection])

Description: Enables enumeration of items in a collection. JScript Only.

Feature 2: VBArray

Standard: JScript 3.0+
Support: Internet Explorer 4.0+

Syntax:
var myVBArray = new VBArray(vbarr)

Description: Provides access to Visual Basic safe arrays.

Feature 3: Debug

Standard: JScript 3.0+
Support: Internet Explorer 4.0+

Syntax:
Debug.write(string);
Debug.writeln(string);

Description: Used for sending debug messages to Visual Studio or Microsoft Script debugger. Early version of Console.log!

Feature 4: JSON

Standard: JScript 5.8+, ECMAScript 3.1+
Support: Internet Explorer 8.0b2+

Syntax:
JSON.parse(text [, reviver])
JSON.stringify(obj)

Description: Provides methods to convert JavaScript values to and from the JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) format.

OK this really wierd thing was happening to us in IE8 Beta 2 on a few of our machines. When we do a Google search we get a Google Checkout widget up in the top left corner of the results page. Any ideas why this might be happening?

The other day, this book ended up on Andre’s desk from O’Reilly: slide:ology – The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations. This book is less science and more art, but it’s full of inspiration and practical advice for people giving presentations. As someone who has seen a few talks, good and bad, a lot of this book rings true. In fact I think a lot of Nancy Duarte’s philosophy is similar to Edward Tufte, who is also a great presenter in his own right and a philosopher of the art of presenting – except maybe for the idea the Powerpoint is a tool to be tamed rather than one to be left out entirely.

Pick up a copy here.