Should I use ScriptSharp

Question

I am developing my first ASP.NET MVC application and I beleive that Script# can help me a lot. But it cannot find the resource necessary to support my development.

I could not find The codeplex site; There is only one manual, which is very good, but it is not enough; I could find very few tutorials; I know that Script# was used to develop ASP.NET MVC scripts and that the source of MVC distributes the library.

But it seems that it is used only internally in Microsoft.

Where can I find other resources???

Do you really think that Script# will be continued and new versions will be deployed and it should be used by third-party projetcs ???

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

Short answer NO. Wait for TypeScript.

Script# is really cool, but MS decided not to support it at all. The reason for that turns out to be that they were working on a better version of that - TypeScript (http://www.typescriptlang.org/) It adds support for everything you need in a static language (intellisense, type checking, interfaces, classes etc.), but still looks very much like JS, and more importantly - confirms to the upcoming ECMA Script 6 standard. (unlike Script# or google's Dart)

Answer 2

Don't be afraid of Javascript, it's a beautiful and powerful language. And with frameworks like jQuery, Prototype and Dojo, DOM manipulation and AJAX are greatly simplified and cross-browser issues are mostly history.

About Script#, I agree with this answer by mcintyre321. Last release over a year ago + closed source = no go for me.

UPDATE Jan/2010: there have been new Script# releases since the original writing of this answer. It's still closed-source but the author mentions open sourcing it after 1.0

UPDATE May 2011: Script# is now open source.

Answer 3

Also I would like to add that you certainly should use ScripSharp when you are planning to develop multiplatform projects. For example, at present time I write my image processing library code for .NET, JavaScript (ScriptSharp), Android (Mono) platforms on C#. Also I am planning to port my code on iOS (Mono) and Windows Phone in the future. And I think it's great code reusing and developer time minimization!

Answer 4

IMHO Script# fits well for large projects only, with really "rich" web client. Participating in such kind of project, I could only say that Script# helped us much. josephhemingway's remark about strongly typed is 100% true for such case. Also it allowed us to introduce new .NET developers without any JS background quickly. Assuming Nikhil Kothari's plans to open-source it in the summer 2008, we even decompiled (don't tell anybody! it's illegal) it and introduced generics, operators overloads, various bug fixes, etc.

BUT. Then Script# support faded away. Project on CodePlex with discussions and issue tracking was closed (interesting that parts of framework were published there shortly before). No updates, no future plans, no explanations. After such thing I'd consider Script# only after it goes open source to give the community ability to support it. E.g. on CodePlex.

Answer 5

I use Script#, I think it is great. You can use it with any framework, jQuery, dojo whatever, you would however have to wrap the framework, this could be a big job...

It's only benefit as I see it is that it allows you to develop javascript in a strongly typed environment. I think this is a HUGE benefit. I refuse to develop in weakly typed languages as maintenance is a nightmare.

If however you like to work in a weakly typed language then you wont need Script#.