Ask Slashdot: No-Install Programming At Work?

An anonymous reader writes "Hello! Every summer (and other holidays) the work load at my job becomes minimal. I like scripting (HTML, CSS etc.) and would like to get into programming just to tinker a bit due to curiosity. At work we are not allowed to install anything except company approved software. Is there something I can program in that has an IDE like PortableApps.com? I guess I am asking for a recommendation on both language and IDE at the same time. Again, I want to reiterate that this is to satisfy my tinkering curiosity and thus not need something great, just something more advanced than HTML/CSS."

Comments

Eclipse

[Anonymous Coward]

it's possible to run eclipse without installing anything, just from the executable in the directory.

also, BlueJ i think you can do the same thing.

Eclipse has a built in java compiler too i believe so you don't need to install the jdk.

JavaScript

[Anonymous Coward]

Your browser already supports it. Just fire up Notepad or Wordpad as your "IDE".

Re:JavaScript

[Anonymous Coward]

Most of those are legacy, but you can live with that

1. "use strict;" is not a hack, but an official part of ECMA-262 v5 (and it should be mandatory for dev environment and should be mandatory OFF for release). And it can't be on by default for fear of breaking old and shitty code.
2. Only catches about ASI are "return\n2+2" (gonna be interpreted as "return; 2+2", see also your 7) and "var a = someFunction\n(expressioninparensonnextlineforsomereason())" (gonna be interpreted as function call, "someFunction(expressioninparensonnextlineforsomereason())")
3. Modern JS engines optimise the numerics well enough. You can also use typed arrays for performance - if you're writing performance sensitive JS code, you're probably doing it in an environment that supports them, anyways.
4. String continuation like that is in ECMA-262 v5 officially and in browsers long before that unofficially - at least IE6 already has them, and you won't probably deal with anything before.
5. As long as one side of + is string - you get string. What you really have to care about is _addition_, because you might accidentally get concatenation (can't count how many times I saw "123.5undefined" on shitty sites). They really should have chosen separate concatenation and addition, but in personal practice I've had almost no problems of this kind
6. This is consequence of trying to make JS too general - the spec and standard library basically has nothing related to execution environment. They should've included module system, but they've got _no_ I/O at all in the spec.
8. I don't think there are many languages where debugger just shows you the closure's variables. You have to step inside, and you'll see the closed variables in the scope, though.

All in all, JS sucks about just as much/as little as any other language out there.

Here you go:

[Georules]

http://ideone.com/

Re:Portable Python?

[PCM2]

Actually, if this is the guy's first forays into "proper programming," I'd tend to maybe steer clear of an IDE, and certainly something as complex as Eclipse. You don't really need it, and a big IDE like that just becomes one more thing to learn, i.e. one more barrier to entry. If what you want to do is write a program and get that magic feeling of watching the program run and seeing it do what it's supposed to do, then just rush on in and do that! No need to learn some IDE. IDEs are great for people who do programming every day and who have to maintain big code bases and work within a group. But if all you want to do is learn to program, I say skip it for now. Save it for when you start doing something ambitious and the tools an IDE gives you are actually useful.

Re:Uhh

[Pf0tzenpfritz]

The ownership of anything you do during your work hours would be in question (at best). Most likely, if you're in IT, you've signed something that says anything you create while on the clock belongs to your employer and there would be no question at all.

OMG. So his employer might pantent "Hello World", if he get's caught learning to program at work!!

Re:Uhh

[master_kaos]

Glad I don't work at a place like that. At my place when it is slow I am pretty much allowed to do whatever I want (managers approval). I usually tinker around with technology that I normaly do not get to use. Quite a bit of my tinkering arond has made me a better developer, as well as introduced new technology into our existing projects to make them even better. My boss was so pleased with my "screwing around" that now he has implemented a google style "20% time" (as long as no major deadline for something) where we can do whatever he hell we want one day a week (although generally I find it more efffective saving the days and doing 4 days in a row). Can do anything from playing with technology, to reading tech magazines, reading development books THe thing my manager loved the most that I did was screwing around with solr which we ended up implementing into our flagship product and upping revenue by 15%