Mootools, I Choose You
I’ve always been a “do it yourself” kind of web developer, but after reinventing the wheel time and time again and struggling to make my code work in the various different browsers out there, I’ve come to appreciate that I can save a TON of time through different libraries and toolkits. I’m no Javascript pro (though I am the resident guru at work), but I find the language interesting. Ever since Google came along and showed the world that Javascript can be used for more than just popups and other web annoyances, I’ve been enthralled with some of the cool things people have done with Javascript. From AJAX to Comet, simple DHTML to animations, it’s simply been an amazing evolution.
About a year ago, Aaron tipped me off to the magic of Javascript toolkits, specifically Dojo. For a while, I was a proponent of it, opting to use it exclusively to drive an internal application that I had written from the ground up at work. It’s an extremely powerful toolkit which has been steadily adding more functionality as it ages to that point that it’s arguably the most powerful toolkit on the market. Unfortunately, I’ve also found it to be one of the most poorly documented toolkits available as well, which I’m sure was due in part to my lackluster understanding of some of the more advanced Javascript concepts. Still, looking at some of the more advanced Dojo examples I’ve seen from Aaron and other sources online, most of the syntax escapes me completely, even as I continue to learn more and more about Javascript.