Comments on: JavaScript libraries: jQuery vs. ExtJS

By: obsidian

obsidian — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 16:41:14 +0000

Steve, good find. I have looked at it before, but it hasn’t ever seemed to fit my needs. The biggest difference I see with this library is that it really focuses on individual pieces as modules rather than a core with modules you can add or take away. This looks to be a great solution if you need only one or two dynamic elements on your page (like a tree). Including a single library item may indeed reduce the footprint needed by a custom build of ExtJS or YUI, but I haven’t done a direct comparison.

In my case, I usually am in need of a handful of elements at the same time, so using ExtJS is generally my choice. In addition, keep in mind that ExtJS has a ton of helper objects and APIs that aren’t strictly visual that some of these other itemized libraries won’t afford.

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 16:01:09 +0000

Have you tried dhtmlx library? I've recently stumbled upon their website and thought it might be an alternative to ExtJS, but I'm not sure. Do you have any experience with them?

By: obsidian

obsidian — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:53:42 +0000

I’m not a big fan of mootools. I’ve used it in the past, and while I’m sure the library has improved in last couple years, it would have to have made significant strides to surpass jQuery in my eyes. I cannot vouch for extensions, and I tried hard to avoid the topic in this post for the very reasons you bring up.

Every user is going to have different needs and preferences to be figured in to every app. If mootools, dojo, striptaculous or another library actually fits the need and your coding style best, use it. For my general purpose coding, though, jQuery it is. I also have written several custom plugins for jQuery with great success on specific project, though I cannot vouch for the nature of the 3rd party ones to which you refer.

By: Brade

Brade — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:33:03 +0000

Haven’t dug into Ext3, but it looks interesting for bigger scale projects. I’ve worked extensively with jQuery and mootools, and at this point, given the choice, I’ll always go with mootools. IMO it handles ajax forms much better (more sensible syntax), and it definitely seems to do animation better. This was proven on a recent site launch, http://www.greenvillenext.com
where the client wanted the feeling of “walking thru” the building. In IE7 in particular, jQuery’s “localscroll” plugin was horribly slow and jaggy. Mootools’ “fx.scroll” ended up doing the job way better on all browsers (although it still snags a little if your browser has been leaking memory for a while). Plus any time I develop with mootools, I have the option of using the “more” libraries which handle most things. If some other need arises, I can then check the clientcide.com libraries and digitarald.de/projects/ for even more fun stuff. The clientcide guy even wrote a nice comparison btw. jquery and mootools at jqueryvsmootools.com

Like I said, I still use jQuery a lot because Drupal comes with it by default and that’s what we develop many of our sites on. But if I’m doing a cakePHP or appEngine app and I get to choose, then mootools it is!