Javascript programming

[Sheridan]

Anyone teaching javascript programming in their school? Looks like we'll be doing it now, and I plan to add the java/editors etc to the Virtualboxes that we already have for Python programming.

 

I've already been told by our resident expert (i.e a teacher) that using a VM is wrong but as far as I can see its the safest and best way for this. Not only will they have a nice sandboxed environment which protects the network from any malicious behaviour it also means they have full rights in the VM so things should work nicely, without spending loads of time checking and changing policies for the domain PCs!

 

I'm getting the usual comments that permissions will be applied, but that won't stop a kid downloading a ddos type of script and running that in school, sandboxed VM means no network connection!

[Arreks]

Java or Javascript?

[Sheridan]

JavaScript at the moment. Getting java to work on domain PCs is a pain!

[Arreks]

For Java I'd probably use a VM, but for Javascript I'd give them Notepad (maybe I'd install Notepad++ instead) and let them get on with it! They can't really do that much harm with it.

[dhicks]

Looks like we'll be doing it now, and I plan to add the java/editors etc to the Virtualboxes that we already have for Python programming.

 

Is this client-side (i.e. in a web browser) or server-side (Node.js or the Rhino Javascript engine that runs in the Java JVM)? If this is for server-side programming then adding to your existing VM setup seems like a sensible idea, but you should be fine letting them run anything they like in a browser - after all, they could already be downloading and running anything they like in a browser anyway.

[Sheridan]

It requires a locally installed javascript engine, and an editor environment to create the scripts. Hence my concerns. If its just web based then the likes of code academy websites are used here anyway!

[LosOjos]

It requires a locally installed javascript engine, and an editor environment to create the scripts. Hence my concerns. If its just web based then the likes of code academy websites are used here anyway!

 

Do you have more details about this javascript engine? That's a new one on me!

 

Javascript is generally used for web scripting client side and can be run by just about any browser made in the past 10 years, no additional plugins/extensions/addons required

[synaesthesia]

We have Netbeans installed on our VMs which covers most of the usual suspects, python is primary but it'll be happy with php, java, js, c, c++, c# etc also. Plenty of options open that way!

[Sheridan]

Do you have more details about this javascript engine? That's a new one on me!

 

Javascript is generally used for web scripting client side and can be run by just about any browser made in the past 10 years, no additional plugins/extensions/addons required

 

Typo, I meant java!

[dhicks]

Typo, I meant java!

 

Right, so you have a Javascript engine written to run as a Java application, is that right? The whole point of Java is that it's meant to be a cross-platform VM - you should be able to limit the access the JVM has to the local machine and/or network resources.