Using a Javascript Framework

There are many Javascript frameworks popping up all over the internet. At this point, I need to pick one for a project I'm working on and the decision is not easy. I have to look at all the possibilities such as performance, size of library, adoption, documentation, and of course features and complex features such as an effects library.

Thankfully there are a lot of resources on the net to help and that is what this article will point you too. Some of the common resources I used to arrive at my decision. First off, this web site http://www.javascriptlibraries.com/ gives a great summary of the different javascript libraries, effects, and tools available today. As of this writing, it seems to be fairly up to date. So that's where I'd look if you're in the market for a library.

As far as performance goes, there is a great web site (slickspeed)that tests the selector performance of some of the top javascript libraries. It includes MooTools, JQuery, Prototype, YUI, and Dojo. This will be give you an idea of how the libraries may perform differently. In general, selector performance may or may not be important to you.

After spending a lot of time analyzing the different frameworks (Analysis Paralysis), I decided to use JQuery for the simple fact that it had great feedback and was easy to find great documentation and I was able to start using it right away. For a cross-browser library, it is incredible. It has so far solved nearly all the problems I've discussed in my blog. However, I will still continue to write about the different cross-browser issues I find as I replace the code with JQuery code.