How to keep track of all the classes/methods/properties created in a long script

Question

Hi,
I'm curious to know what method people use to keep track of all the classes, methods, and properties you've created when writing a longer script.
For quick scripts, this isn't a problem. But for long scripts it can get quite difficult to keep track of all the objects one has created, and all their methods and properties, and overloaded constructors, etc.
ESTK is great, and it's the IDE I use for InDesign scripting, if only because of it's powerful debugging options.
But it doesn't provide any way of keeping track of this stuff. No proper Intellisense as in Visual Studio.
I'd be interested to hear how people solve this issue.

Answer 1

Hi Ariel,
Not sure it is relevant to your question but I have an old snippet that collects and displays ExtendScript references using $.list(). This may help to track some object relationships.
// WARNING: this is just a WIP -- Not tested in all platforms and versions
$.scanRefs = function scanRefs(/*0|1*/showAll)
    var s = $.list(),
        p = (!showAll) && s.indexOf('[toplevel]'),
        a = ((!showAll) ? s.substr(0,10+p) : s).split(/[\r\n]+/),
        n = a.length,
        // --- Address:1     L:2  Rf:3   Pp:4  Type:5  Name:6
        re = /^([0-9a-z]{8}) (.) +(\d+) +(\d+) (.{10}) (.{1,17})/,
        reTrim = / +$/,
        i, t, k, m,
        refBy, type, name, tag, rest, rfCount, props, j,
        o = {},
        TYPES = {'Function':"FCT", 'Object':"OBJ", 'Array':"ARR", 'RegExp':"REG"};
    for( i=2, refBy=0 ; i < n ; ++i )
        s=a[i];
        while( s && m=s.match(re) )
            k = '&'+m[1].toUpperCase();
            rfCount = parseInt(m[4],10);
            rest = s.substr(m[0].length);
            type = m[5].replace(reTrim,'');
            name = m[6].replace(reTrim,'');
            if( 0x5B==rest.charCodeAt(0) )
                p = rest.indexOf(']');
                tag = rest.substr(0,1+p);
                rest = rest.substr(1+p);
            else
                tag = '';
            if( 0x20==rest.charCodeAt(0) )
                rest=rest.substr(1);
            if( p=!(rest.indexOf("referenced by:")) )
                rest = rest.substr(14);
            o[k] || (o[k] = {
                locked:        +('L'==m[2]),
                rfCount:    parseInt(m[3],10),
                ppCount:    rfCount,
                type:        TYPES[type]||type,
                name:        name,
                tag:        tag,
                from:        [],
                order:        -1,
            if( 0 < refBy )
                if( p || !rest ){ throw "Unable to parse references." }
                props = rest.split(' ');
                refBy -= (j=props.length);
                while( j-- ) t.from.push([k,props[j]]);
                (props.length=0)||(props=null);
                rest = '';
            else
                refBy = rfCount;
                if( p != !!refBy )
                    if( p ){ throw "Unable to parse references."; }
                    refBy = 0;
                (t = o[k]).order = n - i;
            (m.length=0)||(m=null);
            s = rest;
    a.length=i=0;
    for( k in o )
        if( !o.hasOwnProperty(k) ) continue;
        a[i++] = k;
    a.sort( function(x,y){return o[x].order-o[y].order;} );
    //a.sort( function(x,y){return parseInt(x.substr(1),16)-parseInt(y.substr(1),16);} );
    var u,
        pngLock = "\x89PNG\r\n\x1A\n\x00\x00\x00\rIHDR\x00\x00\x00\x0E\x00\x00\x00\x0E\b\x06\x00\x00\x00\x1FH-\xD1\x00\x00\x00\tpHYs\x00\x00\x0B\x13\x00\x00\x0B\x13\x01\x00\x9A\x9C\x18\x00\x00\x01VIDAT(\xCF\xA5\x91\xB1j\xC2P\x14\x86\x93\xD6\x94\x98\xA4\xB5\xA5\x85\x0E-R\xAF\xA5\xB8\xF4\x1D\xAA\xEF\x10_B\x9C\xDD\x0B]\xA4o`C\xE9$B\x1C\xCD\x10\x10C6\x05q\td\xA9%\x83d2\x83O\xF0\xF7\xDCp#i\xB5\x1D\xDA\xC0\xC7\xB97\xE7|\xF7\xDC\xCB\x91\x00H\x7FA\xFA\xB7\x98\xFF\xAA\xD5\xEA\x0B\x855\xC1\x13k\xDA\xBF\xEA\x9A\xA6\x9C\x18\xC6\xC1\xB6\xE8\xBBHE\x16\x85w\xC6\xD8\xE3\x91\xA2\xDCQ|\xA2\xFD\x07\xC57\xADXT\x8B\xAAz\xB8#\x8A\x13\xD7\xBC\xD8\xD0\xB4kC\xD7\x19q\xCB*\x95g\xFA\x9FP\xD7\x0B\x8A\n!oE.\xB5Z-\xEC\xA3\xD9l\xA2\xFEP\x07\x1D\xC8;\x18D!/\x16x\x91\xEF\xFBX.\x97\xD8l6H\x92$]O\xA7S\x8CF#\x887\x9F\x13j^T\xB9\xD8\xE9t0\x99L\x10\xC71V\xAB\x15\x82 \xC0\xD0\x1E\xA2\xDDng\xE2\x15q\x9C\x175.:\x8E\x83\xC5b\x81(\x8A \xCB2\xE6\xF39\\\u00D7E\xBF\xDF\xCF\xC4\x1B\xE24/\x1A\\\u00ECv\xBB\xF0<\x0Fa\x18\xA2\xD1h`<\x1E\xC3\xB2,\x98\xA6\x99\x89\x8C8\xDB\x11\x07\x83AzU\xDEu6\x9B\xA5\xA2m\xDB\xE8\xF5z?\x8B4\xC3,\xF9\x1B_E1\x9F\x12Q&j\xC4\xFD\x1Ej\"_\xCA\x8B\x051\xA3K\x91d{(\x8B\xBC\xFE\t\xC1TI!\xE3L\x03\x7F\x00\x00\x00\x00IEND\xAEB`\x82",
        pngNop = "\x89PNG\r\n\x1A\n\x00\x00\x00\rIHDR\x00\x00\x00\x0E\x00\x00\x00\x0E\b\x03\x00\x00\x00(\x96\xDD\xE3\x00\x00\x00\x03PLTE\x00\x00\x00\xA7z=\xDA\x00\x00\x00\x01tRNS\x00@\xE6\xD8f\x00\x00\x00\x15IDATx\xDA\xDD\xC1\x01\x01\x00\x00\x00\x80\x90\xFE\xAF\xF6#\xDA\x01\x00\xD2\x00\x01\xCC \x10\x14\x00\x00\x00\x00IEND\xAEB`\x82",
        w = new Window('dialog', " ExtendScript Memory"),
        p1 = w.add('panel', u, "References"),
        lRefs = p1.add('listbox', u, "",
            numberOfColumns: 4,
            showHeaders: true,
            columnTitles: ["Address", "Type", "Name", "Refs"],
            columnWidths: [90,60,120,36],
        g = w.add('group'),
        pFrom = g.add('panel', u, "From"),
        lFrom = pFrom.add('listbox', u, "",
            numberOfColumns: 4,
            showHeaders: true,
            columnTitles: ["Address", "Type", "Name", "Property"],
            columnWidths: [90,60,120, 120],
        pTo = g.add('panel', u, "To"),
        lTo = pTo.add('listbox', u, "",
            numberOfColumns: 4,
            showHeaders: true,
            columnTitles: ["Property", "Address", "Type", "Name"],
            columnWidths: [120,90,60, 120],
    g.orientation = 'column';
    w.orientation = 'row';
    w.alignChildren = ['left','top'];
    lRefs.maximumSize = lRefs.minimumSize = [330,450];
    lFrom.maximumSize = lFrom.minimumSize = [420,120];
    lTo.maximumSize = lTo.minimumSize = [420,220];
    lRefs.onChange = function()
        lFrom.removeAll();
        lTo.removeAll();
        lFrom.parent.text = "From";
        lTo.parent.text = "To";
        if( !this.selection ) return;
        var key = '&'+this.selection.text,
            t = o[key],
            from = t.from,
            i = from.length,
            k;
        lFrom.parent.text = "["+key.substr(1)+"] is reachable from " + t.ppCount + (1<t.ppCount ? " properties" : " property");
        if( t.ppCount && !i )
            with( lFrom.add('item', '--------') )
                image = pngNop;
                subItems[0].text = '';
                subItems[1].text = '<UNKNOWN REFERRER>';
                subItems[2].text = '';
        while( i-- )
            k = from[i][0];
            t = o[k];
            with( lFrom.add('item', k.substr(1)) )
                image = t.locked ? pngLock : pngNop;
                subItems[0].text = t.type;
                subItems[1].text = t.name + ' ' + t.tag;
                subItems[2].text = from[i][1];
        for( k in o )
            if( !o.hasOwnProperty(k) ) continue;
            t = o[k];
            from = o[k].from;
            i = from.length;
            while( i-- )
                if( from[i][0]!=key ) continue;
                with( lTo.add('item', from[i][1]) )
                    image = pngNop;
                    subItems[0].text = k.substr(1);
                    subItems[1].text = t.type;
                    subItems[2].text = t.name + ' ' + t.tag;
        lTo.parent.text = "["+key.substr(1)+"]'s properties had access to " + lTo.items.length + " addr.";
        from = t = null;
    for( i=0, n=a.length ; i < n ; ++i )
        t = o[k=a[i]];
        with( lRefs.add('item', k.substr(1)) )
            image = t.locked ? pngLock : pngNop;
            subItems[0].text = t.type;
            subItems[1].text = t.name + ' ' + t.tag;
            subItems[2].text = t.ppCount + '/' + t.rfCount;
    w.show ();
// TEST
var t;
var f = function MyFunc()
    (function MyInnerFunc(){})();
$.scanRefs(1);
@+
Marc