794328 - Beef up shell help()

Status: NEW

(Core :: JavaScript Engine, enhancement, P3)

Description

[Steve Fink [:sfink] [:s:]]

Given my extremely weak familiarity with Javascript, I'm getting extremely jealous of the python shell's ability to show useful help.

For example, I'd really like

  help([])

to give me a list of the things that Arrays know how to do.

Comment 1

[Steve Fink [:sfink] [:s:]]

Attachment: imported patch megahelp

This is one incomplete, general approach to it. It just dumps out all of properties of what you pass it. It'll display the .usage and .help on anything it finds (horribly formatted).

Vague later ideas include having the shell load in a ~/.jsrc or something, which could have a bunch of

  Array.prototype.join.usage = "obj.join(str)";
  Array.prototype.join.help = "smushes together array elements, see https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Array/join"

or something. I'd also like it to support .help properties on other objects.

I know the JS shell is only meant for testing, but it's my primary way of interacting with Javascript.