Hi, > In both cases, Apple and CNN have gone with Prototype and > Scriptaculous. I should say up front I'm a big fan of jQuery and > Interface, but I'm wondering why two big sites like this would adopt > Prototype when other high-profile sites like Technorati have adopted > jQuery. > > Are there any standard arguments for Prototype that I don't know > about? Or is it simply a matter of preference and that's all? Just > curious.
I find it interesting as well. Scriptaculous is the "killer app" that makes Prototype even more appealing, and as far as I know, Scriptaculous is the leader in stability and features as far as FX libraries go. :-) Also, Prototype has been in good development shape it seems, because it's in use in Rails applications all the time, and Prototype was incorporated in the Rails repository and its author has even joined 37Signals I think? Today I was checking out some libraries again, and I downloaded the SVN version of Prototype, and I could see a good changelog with lots of improvements by several different developers. That's very good because it means that the library is evolving and probably has a good future ahead of it. :-) Also I found interesting that Prototype still does not include a "DOM Ready" event, so it's not like they are pushing the limits of what's possible. jQuery is doing good, though. jQuery has many strong points to it as well. The core of jQuery is very good and provides plenty of features. Where I think jQuery lacks support is in super-ultra optimization which might be required sometimes. And while the core can be optimized, the plugins are another matter as well. The lack of performance can be exacerbated as everything is "chained". :-) Ultimately, jQuery doesn't have a "killer" application like Scriptaculous, and I think that to create something like Scriptaculous requires a break of culture as far as "chain-only" solutions go in jQuery. I could put some blame in the emphasis on file size which is cultivated in the jQuery community as well, as the code of plugins can be slightly more painful to digest. That said, I am still trying to find something better than jQuery, as other alternatives try to hard to go in the other direction though (bloat, worse community support, slower development cycles, worse code all around). Doesn't anyone have the definitive approach to JavaScript programming? :-) Cheers, Joao
