Some questions to the experts

Question

I have observed some things the reason for which I do not understand:
What is the purpose of function Main () ?
Is it just a wrapper around the initial stuff ?
I assume that global definitions must still precede this.
Adobe's examples (e.g. SnpCreateDialog) use the form
SnpCreateDialog.prototype.run = function() { ...}
rather than simply function SnpCreateDialog () { ...}
What is the rationale behind this?
I have also found a that certain Unicode characters are not allowed in comments of an UTF-8 coded script. In my lengthy script (now > 1000 lines) I needed a regex in the editor to find the culprit: [^\p{L}\p{N}\p{P}\s\$\<\>=+\^]
// goRtfDoc.Close ... // must be postponed to keep the ¶-IDs intact
       This creates the error
Error Message      : Character conversion error
Script, Line#   : H:\Adobe\framemaker.12en\AdobeFrameMaker12\6,  0
     Replacing the symbol ¶ by the word paragraph fixed the error.
    =>  Is there a list of 'unallowed' characters or vice versa a list of allowed characters (also for string constants?).

Answer 1

Thanks Rick for the recommended books.
I have already looked into The Good Parts" by Crockford and decided to first check for the pitfalls (chapter "Bad parts") before I continue with my project.
There are real surpirses, for example the === and !==  (I have used == and !== for equal/not-equal assuming the NOT is a 'prefix').
Well, concerning the Awful parts I can not follow all the recommendations there: e.g. I need global varaibles and ararays. On the other hand, automatic semicolon insertion must really be avoided.
I will check whether my Unicode problem is the result of the 'design for 16 bit' (in which range my character was).
BTW I have not found any reference in the Scripting Guide which coding is allowed for Escripts. A test reveals that ESTK produces UTF-8 files. In the FDK documents there is also no mention of the coding of the source. So it is unclear whether an Escript may be written in a Windows code page (1250, 1251, 1252).
Using JSLint (http://www.jslint.com/) is not that encouraging:
All Escript examples I have (including Yours and Yours and Adobe's) do not observe a main requirement: declare a function before it is used. And unfortunately this requirement can not be switched off, so other errors are only found at the start of a not so buggy script. The ESTK is not a help in finding bad practice constructs - what else is available besided the experise of seasoned scripters like You?
For example, I'm not a fan of writing function ExpandInBook(book) { ... } rather than function ExpandInBook (book) {...}
For clarity / ability to comment I write
function DefineMenus () {
  giLvlTrace += 1; ZTrace ("DefineMenus");
  var sMenuMain   = gasIniTexts[0];
  var sMenuDocu   = gasIniTexts[1];
  var sMenuColl   = gasIniTexts[2];
rather than
function DefineMenus () {
  giLvlTrace += 1;
  ZTrace ("DefineMenus");
  var sMenuMain   = gasIniTexts[0], sMenuDocu   = gasIniTexts[1], sMenuColl   = gasIniTexts[2];
Of course style is often a matter of taste - but I try to keep up with proven practice.