I do not know. Just curious.

But first things first.

As a web developer I spend about 80% of my work-time editing JavaScript code. And since my server-side platform is .NET then it would be very convenient to have decent JavaScript text editor within Visual Studio IDE.

So, Visual Studio 2010 is out. Downloaded and installed. What were my expectations regarding JavaScript editor? Pretty low, actually.  I just wanted to have matching braces highlighted eventually. That’s all. Yes, I know about Ctrl + ] shortcut but it is not event remotely close to convenience.

And the result? Alas.

Without further ado, just look at some real-world fragment of code from jQuery Templates Proposal experimental plugin as I see it in Notepad++, Notepad2 and Visual Studio 2010 editors respectively:

Notepad++

Notepad2

Visual Studio 2010

Look at the highlighted parentheses, regular expression literals, numbers. Do you have a feeling that the last screenshot is not very informative in comparison with the other ones?

If yes, then my question is why?

Instead I was given an IntelliSense. Sorry, but I do not need it to rot my mind. Especially the one which does not always work properly (try to use it with base2 library for example). With all the expressive power of the language I have to know what I am doing.

Instead I still have the same plain old Notepad with some of the JavaScript keywords colorized, plus partially functional/useful IntelliSense.

What I do need, is just a little help to make less errors when I type the code – some essential text editor facilities that I really need. Give me that and only then feel free to improve on something else.

Maybe I am wrong. Then, sorry. Just cannot believe that I have to wait for another couple of years to get very basic code editor feature.