Libraries elsewhere on the 'Net.
Part of JavaScript.
15 June 2009
Stefan Kolb continues his series of tests of JavaScript libraries on mobile phones. This time he did the TaskSpeed tests on ten Nokia S60 phones.
Conclusion: Dojo again the fastest library; this time Prototype is the slowest.
Libraries, Performance, W3C Widgets | Permalink
21 May 2009
13 May 2009
Stefan Kolb, one of my co-workers at Vodafone, has conducted a selector performance test for seven JavaScript library versions in the Vodafone Widget Manager, which runs Opera Mobile, on ten different Symbian S60 phones.
For now it is clearly visible that some frameworks perform better than others in terms of DOM selection. By far the slowest framework in my tests across all devices was the YUI v2.7.0 framework. The fastest frameworks were the two version of the Dojo framework, with version 1.3.0 performing slightly better than version 1.2.3.
It is also clear from the results that the performance depends on the mobile device. The Nokia N73 was the slowest phone, no matter which framework was tested on that device. The fastest phone was the Nokia E66, closely followed by the Nokia N85.
Hopefully, the tested - well established - web frameworks will soon be optimized to perform better on mobile phones. After that, I am sure, they will be of great value for the mobile widget developer, just like they are for web developers today.
Obviously, we need many, many more performance tests before we can say which library is "best" on mobile phones. Still, today we've made a start.
Libraries, Performance, W3C Widgets | Permalink
3 April 2009
Palm now allows you to apply for a beta version of the webOS SDK, which includs the Mojo library. Maybe interesting; currently I'm wondering if I should sign up. (I wouldn't have the time to create a full app anyway, and I'm wondering what the SDK is worth without access to an actual Palm Pre.)
Anyway, I continue to be mildly impressed by Palm's wholesale gamble on the world of web development.
Libraries, Palm | Permalink
19 January 2009
Useful overview of the possibilities for creating web applications on various mobile phones.
Libraries, Mobile | Permalink
17 April 2008
James Edwards repeats a few arguments against JavaScript libraries that are never far from my mind. In this case, his annoyance seems to derive from script authors who don't know how their own scripts work; and that's something I wouldn't like, either.
Nonetheless the whole To Use or Not To Use discussion remains extremely complex. I used to speak against libraries at every opportunity; nowadays I'm not so sure any more. But while reading James's piece I again feel myself sliding back to a strict No Libraries approach.
The final word hasn't yet been spoken.
Libraries | Permalink
11 February 2008
John discusses XPath and its place in JavaScript libraries. Although in general XPath seems to be fast, he's worried about encountering incompatibility problems. These problems might mean that all libraries need both an XPath module and a regular DOM module for the forseeable future, which makes maintenance harder.
Browsers, Libraries | Permalink
28 January 2008
Drew McLellan takes a look at JavaScript libraries and the versioning switch.
With version targeting, IE7 will never go away. Just as browsers are born, they must also die and make way for the next generation.
That's an interesting thought I haven't yet seen anywhere else. Good argument.
IE, Libraries, Theory | Permalink
28 October 2007
John Resig's slides from his presentation at the Ajax Experiences. This sort of overview is SO useful.
Libraries | Permalink
16 May 2007
At XTech in Paris Simon compared the Big Four libraries. Here are his slides. Interesting, altogether.
Libraries | Permalink
2 May 2007
Ajaxian warns against the latest round of Ajax bullshit; this time from Sun. Apparently an otherwise sensible, even profoundly accomplished, programmer wants to write a JavaScript "self-supporting Web programming kernel" (whatever thay may be; sounds like marketing-speak to me) that allows people to ignore those nasty, nasty details of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript when writing Ajax applications.
What annoys me most is not so much the idea itself, but the breathless arrogance that speaks from it: I'm an accomplished programmer, so accomplished in fact that I don't have to learn new langauges when I want to do something I can't do in the languages I already speek. I don't want to learn something as easy as HTML/CSS, so I'm going to re-re-re-invent the wheel.
Dion Almaer observes that we should be glad that this latest round of idiocy does not require us to learn a new programming language. The worst thing about it is that he's right.
This message may be a hoax; Ajaxian refers to a cio.in article, which generally refers back to infoworld.com, where nothing can be found about this latest stupidity.
Libraries | Permalink
27 April 2007
Jeremy on the JS library panel at Web 2.0 Expo. I agree with the idea of the gliding scale from libraries meant to make websites to libraries meant to build applications. Needless to say I'll give the latter a wide berth, and I STRONGLY disagree with the idea of using Java to write JavaScript. If you want to write JavaScript, learn JavaScript.
Libraries | Permalink
25 March 2007
Dean isn't done yet: here are his rules for library authors. They all seem so simple, but are frequently broken by authors with more technical prowess than common sense.
Libraries | Permalink
Nicholas Zakas offers some advice on choosing a JavaScript library. As far as I can see Dean's Base scores well on all of these points.
Libraries | Permalink
Dean Edwards finally unveils his Base library which he already mentioned to me back in June 2006. No documentation, obviously. The library seems to concentrate on getting advanced standards to work in browsers that don't support them yet.
Libraries | Permalink
8 March 2007
Interesting thoughts on a tricky subject. A bug fix in a browser can cause problems in libraries. In addition, it turns out certain object detections (for instance if (element.getAttribute)) can fail in some browsers. I didn't know that.
Libraries | Permalink
12 January 2007
...and Jeremy again.
Building up your own library, on the other hand, is something I wholeheartedly approve of. I’m pretty sure it’s something that just about every developer does anyway, but it really is a great way of accumulating wisdom… wisdom being knowledge over time.
Agreed. In fact, I'm steadily working on a few useful functions of my own, and although I'll never call it a library (I'm thinking of "utility file"), I'll publish it when I'm ready.
Libraries | Permalink
Dan Webb on JavaScript libraries.
I’m a firm believer, especially with JavaScript, that simple is best. File size / download time arguments aside, the less code you can get away with having the browser parse and execute the better off you are. Less for the browser to do. Less to go wrong. Less to try to understand.
Agreed. Dan continues by listing a few essential functionalities that are so totally useful that it's worth having a library for.
Libraries | Permalink
19 December 2006
Jeremy's thoughts on JavaScript libraries.
There’s a lot of talk about JavaScript libraries, including a lot of hype and cheerleading, but I think that maybe the discussion is disproportionate to the amount of people actually using libraries.
Spot on. As Jeremy says, a quick and non-scientific poll @media showed that only a minority of JavaScript developers use a library; the others just code by hand.
But JavaScript libraries are cool nowadays and will remain so until the Ajax hype blows over.
Libraries | Permalink
Chris summarises what's wrong with JavaScript libraries today.
Libraries | Permalink
12 September 2006
Ryan Campbell does some benchmark tests with Prototype's Enumerator, and finds it's significantly slower than a traditional, non-library approach.
If basic JavaScript will do the task, then use basic JavaScript.
Benchmarks, Libraries | Permalink
9 May 2006
Again a frameworks article. Frameworks *can* suck, is the message.
Libraries | Permalink
Eric complains: 'I just don’t get all these new-fangled programming frameworks. Is something wrong with me?' No, there's something wrong with the frameworks. Several commenters note that the same problem exists in JavaScript. What goes around comes around. Maybe the latest batch of JS libraries have already passed their zenith.
Libraries | Permalink
15 February 2006
I'm not likely to use any of them, but this is nonetheless a useful list.
Libraries | Permalink
18 January 2006
Interesting. Since prototype is the single library on my to-study list, I'll keep this reference around.
Libraries | Permalink
12 December 2005
Yet more documentation of prototype functionalities.
Libraries, Reference | Permalink
30 November 2005
May be interesting after all, though I'll still have to study this library in detail.
Libraries, Reference | Permalink
This is the linklog of Peter-Paul Koch, mobile platform strategist, consultant, and trainer. You can also visit his QuirksBlog, or you can follow him on Twitter.
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