[Baypiggies] off topic: JavaScript: DOM vs. innerHTML, Server-driven vs. Client-driven

[Bill Katz]

On Fri, Aug 21, 2009 at 9:07 AM, Alex Martelli<aleax at google.com> wrote:
> I guess "best looking" is a subjective call and I don't claim
> expertise on "looks" -- dojox.grid,
> http://www.dojotoolkit.org/book/dojo-book-0-9/docx-documentation-under-development/grid
> , seems fine to me;-).

I'll take a harder look at Dojo but back when I made my choice, Extjs
had a better looking and more complete widget set.  (And beauty is in
the eye of the beholder.)   Here are some head-to-head comparisons
from 2 years and 1 year ago, respectively:

http://blog.tremend.ro/2007/08/22/dojo-vs-extjs-how-dojo-lost-in-front-of-other-ui-frameworks-like-ext-js/

http://www.dojotoolkit.org/forum/dojo-foundation/general-discussion/dojo-vs-extjs

But that was then.  All js frameworks are progressing.  You can view
the current offerings:

Dojo demos are at http://demos.dojotoolkit.org/demos/

Extjs demos are at http://extjs.com/deploy/dev/examples/samples.html

Dojo has a big advantage -- they're open source for commercial use
unlike Extjs.  I'm a single developer so I didn't find Extjs licensing
a burden.  For many, this is a deal breaker.

> I have my issues with code generation -- ORMs that generate SQL on my
> behalf, GWT, Pyjamas, Visual Studio's long-standing GUI builders, etc.
> They never make code as good as I'd write by hand, and they always add
> limitations. And editing the generated code is a sure road to
> disaster.

I also have issues with code generators and like aspects of
Javascript, particularly vs. Java.  To play devil's advocate, though,
code generators can decrease the amount of code necessary for a
particular UI.  It will only include the exact parts of the necessary
framework (unlike a more blocky library include) and can also build
browser-specific code, which is probably tighter.  I don't know what
the true savings might be when you consider caching and Google AJAX
Library API.

Also, not everyone is as good a coder as Alex so at least in my case,
generated javascript is as good or better execution-wise if not
readability-wise.

Regards,
Bill