Poll: which JavaScript library do you use?
I meet lots of developers working with different technologies and tools, and one thing that interests me is which, if any, JavaScript library they use.
Therefore, I thought we’d conduct a simple poll here to get a very basic feel of each library’s popularity and user base, and also how many that use a JavaScript library at all.
Please enter your reply below:
30 Comments/Reactions
June 8th, 2009 at 13:12
Is it possible to view how many actuall votes each entry has?
June 8th, 2009 at 13:12
I try to use JQuery everywhere in work. It has the best performance, small size and a community well enough (not all JQuery fan boys are complete morrons, but a huge bunch of them are).
My weapon of choice used to be scriptaculous+prototype, but after having performance hell in IE7 with pages of 4000+ HTML-elements I rather quit than working with it again.
When working personally and not as a proffessional, I use DLite and DOMAssistant. The latter has in fact better performance and smaller size than JQuery, but lacks wide support. To bad.
June 8th, 2009 at 13:12
I wish I knew which one to use. I am thinking about going with Dojo because of the good ARIA support, then again I really like how jQuery works so I can’t decide
June 8th, 2009 at 13:18
Andreas,
Sorry, not at this time. I might reveal it later, though.
Anders,
Thanks for using my code, I’m glad you like it!
Samisin,
It’s a tough call. jQuery is light-weight and very widespread, while other libraries are better for other things.
My take is that there definitely isn’t one optimal library for all needs, but rather that one needs to evaluate the current requirements.
June 8th, 2009 at 13:19
@Samisin – there’s jQuery adapters for Dojo as far as I understand. i.e. if you’re comfortable with jQuery syntax, then you can use it in Dojo (the same for mootool adapters for Dojo, etc). I think it’s called Jojo.
June 8th, 2009 at 14:13
I’m still on jQuery, but I’m surprised not to see DOMAssistant in the list of answers?
June 8th, 2009 at 14:54
I know it can be used on top of other libraries, but still, no love for ExtJS?
It does have its own core now, too.
June 8th, 2009 at 15:13
For jQuery folks looking at Dojo, be sure to check out plugd, which brings a whole lot of jQuery-like functionality to the library. Definitely worth checking out (even for non-jQuery users).
June 8th, 2009 at 15:28
Hi all
Please take a look at the Pi Library:
http://pi.kodfabrik.com
I guess pi.element class would call your attention;
http://pi.kodfabrik.com/documentation/element/pi.element/
azer
June 8th, 2009 at 15:54
Remy,
Thanks for the tip!
Andreas,
Generally, I wanted to have the most-used libraries as options, and having Other for any other library – and, naturally, have comments up for suggestion.
DOMAssistant’s market share is just not that big to qualify.
mdmadph,
I have nothing against ExtJS, but just as far as I know, it doesn’t qualify amongst the top 5 (which is the options I wanted).
Rebecca, Azer,
Thanks for the tips.
June 8th, 2009 at 18:41
I’ll pass along another vote for DOMAssistant. Mostly I try to stay away from comprehensive libraries, but MooTools is used at my workplace.
June 8th, 2009 at 18:46
Chris,
Thanks!
June 8th, 2009 at 19:46
Wow, surprising results … I never would have guessed at such a popularity for jQuery, even with Microsoft giving it their seal of approval.
Personally I voted jQuery, Prototype + other … because those are the ones I have worked with in the last three months. If I was solely responsible for CHOOSING which library to work with, it would look different.
June 8th, 2009 at 20:26
Would like to use more DOMAssistant – but mostly it’s jQuery or no library at all. Often because I’m forced to use jQuery in Drupal.
Thinking of perhaps trying to build some kind of custom libraries upon DOMAssistan/dLite in the future though for some high performance project in need of some kind of supporting library.
June 8th, 2009 at 20:43
I started off with Prototype, then used jQuery for a couple of projects. Now that I know better, the only JS library I’m using for new projects is Peter Michaux’s Fork JavaScript. There is also one existing project where I’m phasing out jQuery for Fork. Since that project does not make any use of selector queries, removing jQuery and using regular DOM methods (and Fork for AJAX and events) actually ends up making the code shorter.
June 8th, 2009 at 21:56
I would mention base2 in addition to extjs. Personally I use jQuery, sometimes Prototype, but jQuery more often.
June 9th, 2009 at 3:00
I’m sure all of these libraries are very capable – some are better for some things, some for others.
My philosophy is to always go with the most popular. In software, there is strength in numbers. The “network effect”.
Unless there’s a really, really good reason to make an exception.
As I see, jQuery is most popular by far in this poll. It got my vote, too.
June 9th, 2009 at 3:46
I used Prototype briefly, YUI for about a year, and finally settled on jQuery which (imo) is by far the best. It’s small, works well cross browser, and it’s very easy to use once you get the hang of selectors (the similarities with css selectors make this an easy learning curve).
June 9th, 2009 at 5:33
Right now, I’m using Dojo. I really liked jQuery, but the application I’m currently working on is quite large, and the only way to do it nicely is by breaking it into nice small chunks. Dojo’s require/provide, etc., really help here. In three days of active development, I’ve developed portions of a front end that, in the past, would likely have taken a couple of weeks to develop — and each little piece is very simple. Since what I’m developing is a web application, I haven’t actually been using any selectors — all objects are actually generated from JavaScript.
jQuery, however, is wonderful in how it deals with the DOM, so for web sites (as opposed to apps), it is currently my tool of choice.
June 9th, 2009 at 9:12
At work we’re slowly switching to jQuery. In personal projects I still enjoy the light-weight DOMAssistant.
June 9th, 2009 at 10:21
Morgan,
Actually, I’m not that surprised. Wherever I go, people tend to talk about, and use, jQuery.
Pelle,
Sounds like a good idea!
Vladimir,
Interesting, thanbks for sharing!
Q-Zma,
Good addition, base2 is very competent.
Richard,
Without a doubt. One of the strongest things jQuery has going for it is the enormous community.
Aaron,
Interesting to hear your take, and how your choices have changed.
Alex,
I have heard similar things. Never worked with something that large, I think, but I’m interested in giving Dojo a try if that comes up.
Jeroen,
Glad that you like DOMAssistant!
June 9th, 2009 at 22:20
Using Mootools at work because it’s part of our framework, but not totally satisfied because many standalone scripts aren’t compatible, plugins are scarce, and the general code quality of said plugins is below par (keyboard inaccessible, no skinning, too little configuration). Not to mention that documentation and tutorials could be improved in many ways. First step would be to indicate the version of the framework used in the demo and documentation…
On the other hand, I’ve only heard praise about jQuery. And John Resig rocks!
June 9th, 2009 at 22:32
Goulven,
Yes, the community and options around jQuery is astonishing.
June 10th, 2009 at 17:26
Hi Robert,
The Vote button is not visible in SeaMonkey 1.1. Is that browser too old?
June 10th, 2009 at 17:40
Christophe,
No idea. Please check with PollDaddy what they think of it (poll functionality provided by them).
June 12th, 2009 at 12:08
Maybe it’s a stylesheet issue. The poll on their site is OK.
(However, their site has serious issues for sighted keyboard users: there is absolutely no focus visibility when you tab through the site and the “Take our survey” pop-up on the Features page seems to be completely keyboard-inaccessible: you can’t get into the survey without a pointing device. I have sent them feedback about these issues.)
June 12th, 2009 at 15:56
Christophe,
Maybe, but the styling is so rudimentary, so I can’t see why it wouldn’t work.
Good for giving them feedback; I have been in touch with them with opinions about their non-JavaScript version as well.
June 19th, 2009 at 11:20
DomAssistant is the one I’ve used most
DomAss!
June 19th, 2009 at 11:27
dAN,
DOMAss to the people! And thanks!
March 12th, 2010 at 13:24
[...] Note: original poll page’s here. [...]
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