[Baypiggies] What's a web developer?

[Rami Chowdhury]

On Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:35:40 -0800, K. Richard Pixley <rich at noir.com>  
wrote:

> Rami Chowdhury wrote:
>> Did you have a look at YUI, Scriptaculous, or Moo.fx? I'd be interested  
>> to hear your thoughts...
> I did.
>
> Note that the object/classing model in javascript is sorely lacking and  
> nearly all frameworks offer some level of object and inheritance  
> abstraction.  This is typically leveraged as the mechanism behind their  
> widget classes, (which is what leads reading about them to seem so  
> reminiscent of Xtk and Xw which created object abstractions in C for X11  
> and then a set of widgets which used that object abstraction.)
>
> Scriptaculous isn't really a framework so much as it is an addition to  
> Prototype for doing certain kinds of animations.  In the same way that  
> many of the frameworks support or supplant Prototype, they also support  
> or supplant the functionality from scriptaculous.  It's not really a  
> framework alternative.
>
> Mootools has a small, zealous community of support and many add on  
> pieces.  However, the sum of those pieces is a complex, set of widgets  
> without much in the way of coherence or overall design.  They lack many  
> of the abilities of most of the other frameworks.  And they are fairly  
> well known for being less efficient, ie, slower and more space costly  
> than other frameworks.  The sole claim to fame of the moo folks is a  
> superior model for object abstraction and even that seems to be arguable.
>
> YUI seems to be a very strong base framework, with very little in the  
> way of evolved widgets.  If they exist, they are not part of the  
> standard package nor easy to find.  As I was looking for existing  
> widgets, YUI did not seem to be the right choice for me in my recent  
> project.
>
> Depending on what you want to do, you probably want a "framework" which  
> replaces the javascript object model, simplifies much of the DOM model,  
> and perhaps abstracts at least one AJAX model and perhaps several.  You  
> may also want a set of pre-built widgets for constructing your own  
> interfaces and perhaps your own widgets.  If you intend to create all of  
> your own widgets, then any of the libraries already mentioned, (except  
> scriptaculous), will do.
>
> Prototype has no widgets to speak of, nor does scriptaculous.
>
> YUI looks to me like an excellent base for creating your own widgets,  
> but a weak base for using already developed widgets.
>
> Moo has a debatable object abstraction paradigm and a moderate library  
> of widgets, although with little or no overall design to the widget  
> collection.  Essentially, the widget library has evolved organically  
> from the free software community around it without much structure.
>
> Dojo seems similar in this regard, only with a much better attempt to  
> catalog and simplify the official widget set.  Dojo also has a pretty  
> rich widget set which rivals jquery and ext-js.
>
> Jquery and ext-js both have rich widget sets, good documentation, and  
> good demos available.  Ext-js seems to me to have the superior grid  
> widget.
>
> My research wasn't exhaustive so I'm sure I've missed gaping pieces of  
> each of these systems and communities.  Personally, I was specifically  
> looking for an all-in-one framework with a good degree of consistency, a  
> strong grid widget, at least a modest but well integrated widget set,  
> with easily accessible demos, good documentation, and an open source  
> license so that's my bias.  For a different project, I may well have  
> selected a different framework.
>
> --rich
>

Great summary -- thank you!



-- 
Rami Chowdhury
"Never attribute to malice that which can be attributed to stupidity" --  
Hanlon's Razor
408-597-7068 (US) / 07875-841-046 (UK) / 0189-245544 (BD)