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VBScript: Javascript Made Easy
Is It Really Easier?
Well, it's largely a matter of personal preference, and what
you're used to. If you're an experienced programmer, you'll
probably think that VBScript is a joke, and prefer Javascript.
If you're not, though, VBScript's English-like code can make
things clearer and quicker when you're writing scripts. For
example, compare this code for an if/then/else condition.
Javascript:
if (a==1) { alert("a"); } else if (b==1) { alert("b"); }
else { alert("z"); }
VBScript:
if a=1 then msgbox "a" elseif b=1 then msgbox "b" else msgbox
"c" end if
See what I mean? This is a pretty representative sample of the
differences (a 'for' block would provide a more extreme
example). To put it simply, Javascript looks 'code-like', with
all kinds of brackets and semicolons all over the place - and
it's all-too-easy to forget one. VBScript, on the other hand, is
designed to be more human, and closer to natural language. While
its approach is less flexible for complicated operations, it's
much quicker for simpler ones.
Useful VBScript Functions
Here are a few of the functions VBScript has that you'll be
wishing you could use in Javascript.
DateDiff. Works out the difference between two dates - this is a
nightmare in most programming languages.
FormatCurrency. Takes a number and formats it as whatever
currency you want.
InStr. Looks for some text in a string, and stops when it finds
it. Useful for including text up to a special 'stop' phrase.
Split. Divides some text up into an array depending on where a
certain character is (similar to PHP's explode command, and just
as useful).
Replace. Lets you look through some text and replace every
instance of a certain character or phrase.
Apart from this, VBScript offers quite a few of Javascript's
functions. Even though that's useful, it can sometimes make you
feel like you're just writing Javascript in an odd way - the
same way that doing anything complex with desktop Visual Basic
gradually seems to turn into writing a kind of C with a slightly
different layout. If you keep things simple, though, VBScript is
good at what it does.
So What's the Catch?
Well, the catch is a big one. Pages written using VBScript won't
work in any web browser other than Internet Explorer - it's
Microsoft's own language, and no-one else supports it. For
better or for worst, the web has long since standardised on
Javascript. This unfortunate fact means that, for use on the
web, you're pretty much stuck with Javascript, unless you want
to alienate many of your visitors, or your scripting isn't
essential for your site to work. This is the number one reason
why you hardly ever see any VBScript anywhere on the web.
If you're writing web pages to go on a corporate intranet or
some other environment where you have control over how users
access the site, however, VBScript can make your life
considerably easier. You might also consider using it if you've
written Javascript that works in every browser except Internet
Explorer, as just using VBScript for one or two things can save
you playing around with lengthy workarounds.
An Alternative Way of Doing Things
If Javascript intimidates you and you'd really like to use
VBScript, but you want your site to work on as many web browsers
as possible, there is a solution! VBScript and Javascript that
there are converters freely available to translate between them
- a good one is at
http://slingfive.com/pages/code/scriptConverter/, but there are
plenty more. You can simply write your scripts in VBScript and
then run them through the translator to turn them into
cross-browser Javascript, without having to write a word of
Javascript!
Even better, once you've got the two versions of the script side
by side, you can compare them, and start to learn how things are
done in Javascript. Before long, you'll be writing it with no
trouble.
About the author:
Information supplied and written by Lee Asher of Eclipse Domain
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