debug information/ meta coding in javascript

[foldface@yahoo.co.uk]

Hi
I'm after information on the hard stuff in javascript (no, not alt.binaries... )

(1) Is there anyway of tracing calls in javascript. Ideally I'd have a
background function, periodically popping up via setTimeout and it would
be able to say something like, browser.javascr iptCalls[0], or..
On every javascript call of any kind have another method called which could
then identify the caller and trace it

(2) Can I determine the methods and data of any object in javascript
somehow?

Thanks

F

[Lasse Reichstein Nielsen]

Re: debug information/ meta coding in javascript

foldface@yahoo. co.uk writes:
[color=blue]
> Hi
> I'm after information on the hard stuff in javascript (no, not alt.binaries... )
>
> (1) Is there anyway of tracing calls in javascript.[/color]

Not generally. Different browsers have different extensions to
Javascript that might allow that. I am not sure how, but the Venkman
debugger for Gecko browsers has breakpoints, so something must be
possible.
[color=blue]
> (2) Can I determine the methods and data of any object in javascript
> somehow?[/color]

Not all of it. Propertie of objects can be set "don't enumerate". Only
original propertie (like the toString property of Object.prototyp e)
are note enumerable. All properties you add yourself will be enumerate.
You can go through all the enuymerable properties of an object with
the for(in) construction:
for (propertyName in objectRef) {
... objectRef[propertyName] ...
}
Again, there might be proprietary methods for accessing the
non-enumerable properties, but it is not part of Javascript core.

/L
--
Lasse Reichstein Nielsen - lrn@hotpop.com
DHTML Death Colors: <URL:http://www.infimum.dk/HTML/rasterTriangleD OM.html>
'Faith without judgement merely degrades the spirit divine.'

[Douglas Crockford]

Re: debug information/ meta coding in javascript

> (1) Is there anyway of tracing calls in javascript. Ideally I'd have a[color=blue]
> background function, periodically popping up via setTimeout and it would
> be able to say something like, browser.javascr iptCalls[0], or..
> On every javascript call of any kind have another method called which could
> then identify the caller and trace it
>
> (2) Can I determine the methods and data of any object in javascript
> somehow?[/color]

No. Certainly not with setTimeout, which only runs when the interpreter
is idle. What is it that you hope to accomplish?