Just starting to look into javacript libraries like Jquery, Mootools, Dojo and all the rest of them. Anyway I was wondering how many people on Frihost use them, and if you do which ones do you recommend?
Personally I'm not so sure that they're a good thing, as one well-know javascript developer said people no longer understand the javascript that they're playing around with. (not a perfect quote). What do you think about libraries in particular? Good or bad 
. I use jQuery. I started to use it at work and since that, I have loved it 
There is many plugins for it and you can create own plugins too. I think it is good at least give a try 
This looks also very handy, but at first looks, it seems to need quite lot of writing ... Is that an illusion is fact? I use jQuery. I think those libraries are more a good thing than a bad thing. It's true that sometimes we don't code in pure javascript, but the point of coding is making something and if a library can speed up that process, why whining about pure javascript? Javascript is not even the best language ever anyway (no language is).
jQuery... its the lightest, easiest to code, and very very fast. I especially love the selectors in jQuery, you can target any element in a DOM with minimal effort with jQuery...
I know this sounds like a very stupid question, but what is a Javascript library for?
Thanks,
-Nick JavaScript Libraries:
| Quote: |
| A JavaScript library is a library of pre-written JavaScript controls which allow for easier development of JavaScript-based applications. |
Very practical as they allow you to develop apps without writing every bit of code. They do have a bit of overhead, however. Well guys, thankyou for all your replies, I thought Jquery would be popular. Does anyone else use a different library?
Wow, they sound very useful. I'm downloading jQuery right now.
| Quote: |
| Very practical as they allow you to develop apps without writing every bit of code. They do have a bit of overhead, however. |
Actually a 30 KB jquery.js is not A BIT of overhead (it can easily account to 30% - 50% of the size of a single page view). But fast coding is a lot better than bandwidth or page view speed (IMHO). Not to mention that you do not have to handle all those browser-specific quirks.you can "compress" it by removing comments, space bar, line feed and carriage return. it should go down to 15k. and you just need to load it once.
| leontius wrote: |
| Quote: | | Very practical as they allow you to develop apps without writing every bit of code. They do have a bit of overhead, however. |
Actually a 30 KB jquery.js is not A BIT of overhead (it can easily account to 30% - 50% of the size of a single page view). But fast coding is a lot better than bandwidth or page view speed (IMHO). Not to mention that you do not have to handle all those browser-specific quirks. |
| Quote: |
| you can "compress" it by removing comments, space bar, line feed and carriage return. it should go down to 15k. and you just need to load it once. |
I believe that the 30 KB javascript file is already compressed with a tool much more sophisticated than whitespace and comment remover. The non-compressed javascript is about 97 KB according to http://jquery.com/ . One way it could go down to 16 KB is to use PHP to force gzip compression for JS files (which is one more thing to setup). You're right that it is still loaded once, but we must not let first-time visitors down! | polly-gone wrote: |
I know this sounds like a very stupid question, but what is a Javascript library for?
Thanks,
-Nick |
Its like a framework, you can use various methods and calls already built inside jquery, just for example look at http://visualjquery.com/1.1.2.html to see what all jquery can do.. its amazing 
I use jQuery so often for two reasons:
1. It's easy to understand, light weight and browser friendly.
2. Most people use it, so it's familiar to many clients.
The jQuery UI rocks. I love it, and I would recommend everyone to use jQuery.
i've been working in mootools and jquery, well jquery is very much simplier than mootools, and besides you can make easy animations in jquery, but as i read of some developers that mootools is more powerful than jquery. I used mootools for my big projects, and it's very fun although it's not quite easy as jquery.
