jquery vs mootools: my initial thoughts
Introduction
I’ve been using jQuery regularly for my new job now for about 3 weeks or so. I’ve used the selectors, event handling, short cuts/handlers, animations, plugins etc. Nothing too fancy, but in general, a descent exposure. I’d like to compare it with Mootools. And while I do rock a Mootools skin on my phone, I’m going to try and remain as objective as subjectively possible. I’m going to try and stay positive about the differences and give use-cases for using either.
Gut Reaction
jQuery is fast to learn, easy to use, and passes the ‘thinking’ to the framework. It allows you to do incredibly powerful client side stuff without knowing too much of the inner workings, worrying about being specific and explicit about your syntax or organization, and most importantly lets you get this stuff done quickly.
Mootools on the other hand requires you to be explicit. You want to create a node with 4 children and easy of them have a bunch of inline attributes? Cool, do it manually, instead of specifying a string of html which the engine will parse and DOM-inize for you (jQuery can do this). Most prominent for me: jQuery is very smart and very easy to use, but lacks a certain elegance due it’s lack of explicit control; Mootools requires more work and overhead to get something done, but is very organized and beyond the learning curve, more meaningful.
Example
To create a series of nodes in jQuery, it’s as easy as this:
var html = ‘<div id=”div-one”><span id=”span-one”>yo yo</span></div>’;
$(html).prependTo($(’#random-node’));
In Moo, it’d be something like this:
var first = new Element(’div’,{’id’:'div-one’});
var two = new Element(’span’,{’id’:’span-one’});
first.adopt(two);
$(’body’).shift().adopt(first);
One is easier/more implicit than the other. However the other is much more explicit, and easier to follow for a foreigner who isn’t too familiar with the jQuery syntax, rules and behaviors.
Optimization/Speed
I don’t know too much about jQuery’s speed. I believe that at this point we’ve got to the point where an extra 10 milliseconds isn’t a do or die or decision maker for what framework/library to use. But with that in mind, one of the great things for Moo is the ability to compartmentalize only what is needed for client side behavior. Everything is kept as a separate stand alone, window based class, where as jQuery seems to throw in a lot of other code into one batch which is mutually dependent.
This goes back to my gut reaction though. For a new comer, I don’t want to try to determine what classes/objects I’ll need. I want a script tag that has almost everything that I need. No playing with downloader apps to pick and choose what my project will need. Mootools therefore introduces a higher level of (initial) complexity, but brings with it greater than control, and again, explicitness.
Community
Up until this point, I’ve more or less tried giving opinions for and against both libraries, but in this category (Community), there is a winner hands down: jQuery. I don’t really know what the reason for this is. I would say that jQuery has been more organized in their community/developer evangelism, which is completely true, but I don’t think that’s the real reason.
While Mootools is still trying to get it’s community plugin system up and rung (MooForge, I believe), I think a core reason it’s the direct and simplicity of jQuery. I think it was able to garner such a strong following because the barrier to entry is to incredibly tiny. I don’t need to understand JavaScript syntax, programming syntax, or the inner workings of client side development. The very syntax that I love about Moo (e.g. new Element(’div’).addClass(’oliver’).addEvent….) is also probably what turns people off. The fact that I need to be so direct about what I want done is something that many people probably don’t want to deal with.
Conclusion
But away from my tangent, the jQuery community is amazing. So many plugins, organized horizontally and vertically by jQuery themselves. So many resources to learn the syntax, deconstruct plugins to understand the code, etc. While my obsessive compulsiveness when it comes to coding syntax and practices would never allow me to fully embrace and adopt jQuery personally and independently of where I work full time, I can understand fully it’s benefits. I’ll always evangelize Mootools whenever I can, but after this exposure to jQuery, I’ll understand where it’s most useful and for whom Mootools would really be welcome to.
Flexibility: Server side vs Client side
I’ve been told by many people, veterans in their respective industries such as family friends, family members, etc., that when you’re in a technical field, the best type of job security is to specialize. I imagine this would extend to a lot of different areas (entertainment, finance, management, etc.) but especially in the technical/programming arena, I find it’s very true and productive.
What I mean by this is, be very very very good in a very very very specific field/discipline. Be the best out of all the people you know. If you’re a server side developer, don’t try and learn all the server side languages; rather be the best object-oriented php5 developer who knows the ins and outs of PECL and PEAR extensions. Or be the best db admin who can optimize an InnoDB mysql engine better than anyone you’ve met. That way, when anyone is looking for something specific, you’ll be the first person to come to mind.
I’m too obsessive to follow this though. I would hate being really good at one thing, and then just having to depend on someone else to help me out with the other. Because of that, I’m not very very very good in one area, rather I’m pretty good in a bunch of them. But this is actually still making me fall into a very specific niche; namely, if someone is looking for one guy who can configure a linux/apache box, set up and admin a db, set up a server side dev env., do designs in photoshop, turn them into html/css/js, and add in ajax/js techniques to make a more interactive application/website, I’m that guy. If I were to work in a company with other developers, I probably wouldn’t be better than anyone in any specific area. I wouldn’t be the best JS guy, or CSS guy, or DB guy, and because of that I’m probably not suited for a lot of companies, but for my current contract, they needed one guy who can wear 5 or 6 different hats.
So ironically, the fact that I don’t specialize in one specific area, rather 5 or 6 of them, makes me specialized. It makes me the specific person to go to when you need one person who is pretty good in a bunch of areas.
If you read the title, you might wonder what this has to do with it; it’s a segway into my point. On my current project, I’m having to do both client and server side dev., and it’s making me realize something. The server is way more flexible than the client.
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Here’s why.
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The server is usually a linux/unix box. It’s role in a web application/site is to fulfill client side requests, push out data, yadda yadda. It normally doesn’t do anything visual. The client, however, is intrinsically visual. It’s supposed to represent a server architecture in a cohesive, logical way. Now when doing client side dev., you have to normally worry about ie6, ie7, ie8, ff3, sf, opera and chrome (not always this, but thats the goal). At times you’ll run into things you can’t do in the others (CSS3, certain types of ajax callbacks, etc.); sometimes they’ll be things that aren’t worth the time, but other times, it just can’t be done. There is no hack or way around it, it just can’t be done. It’s frustrating to say the least, but it’s making me really value and respect the entire web paradigm and the server’s role in it all.
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How does this relate to my introduction?
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I find that there is a lot of ego involved in the web industry. A lot of butting heads in terms of how important people/disciplines are in the grand schemes of things. There are the executives/bus.dev. guys, marketing dudes/gals, client side developers, server side developers, operations/db dudes, and creative/design people. That’s generally how I break it down, and with some exceptions, everyone thinks their role is one of the most important ones. They’ll pretend and put on a face that they don’t believe it, but at their core, there is a lot of pretense about their own positions. I suppose that’s normal considering that’s their professional role.
I’ve always maintained (and have a post that should be coming soon) that one of the most important roles, which I’m terrible at and in no way consider myself part of, is in fact the creative/design ones. I’ll leave my reasoning here for another post. My understanding of the flexibility of client vs server side therefore comes from the fact that I don’t specialize in any one area. If I were a operations/db guy, I’d think the db was the most flexible. If I was a pure server side guy, I’d think it was the most flexible, and the same for the client side.
The point I tried to make with my introduction and the conclusion of the server side being the most flexible is that because of my lack of specialization (and therefore abstract specialization) in the full life cycle of a web application, I think I’m in a unique situation to make that judgment. It’s not right or infallible or anything, but I come at it from a unique perspective. My career/financial stability doesn’t hinge on any one area of the cycle. I could find a job doing client side, or server side, or db/operations, maybe even some mild graphic/creative design stuff. Even as far as more on the management and marketing stance, I think I’d be alright. And because of this, I think I’m in a convenient location to sit back, analyze where any bottle necks are in flexibility, and make a call on what makes the most sense and is most accommodating.
And my conclusion? The server side is way more flexible. There is never a point/time when I can’t do something. It might take more time than I’d hope, require more resources (memory, developers, etc.), but at no point do I have to create ‘hacks’. It’s logical and follows procedures and standards. I think this is mainly because it’s been around longer. The server side env. is really just a programming environment. It’s been around, and perfected, since the 50’s. The web client-side has been around, for the most part, for less than 15 years.
That being said, the client side is getting better. With Flash, Adobe Air, Google Gears, and some really cool plugins (Rhino, for one) the client side is trying real hard, and milding succeeding, in become less of a bottle neck for an application. I think with time it will succeed, but as it stands right now, the server side is where it’s at. Fewer headaches, and more logic, make it one of the most time-satisfying parts of the projects I’m doing lately.
Jumping the gun: html5/css3 is not here yet!
On Twitter, I follow a bunch of people in the development arena. JavaScript framework core developers, designers, mysql/php architects, etc. etc. I’d say about 50% of the people I follow are in that arena (the other 50% probably being aggregators or tech news sites/blogs).
A consistent theme I’m finding in the past few months has been css3/html5 posts. They talk about new effects, rules, possibilities, etc. etc. Now I try to be optimistic about web development; I try to practice valid w3c content, semantic markup, everywhere I can. But the age of css3/html5, at least for me, is still so far off. 25% (at the least) of internet users are still using ie6, another 40% are using ie7; that takes us to about 65% of internet users using subpar browsers (ie7 is a step up, but still very much sub-par) that don’t support anything close to css3 and html5.
These browsers are so terrible that I spend about 80% of my client side development time focused on fixing issues I run into there. I write code that is semantic, valid, and based on standards, and then debug it and add in browser-specific fixes for them. Now the reason for bringing up my (and obviously most client side developer’s) hatred for it is because of this sudden (last 4-6 months) pushed towards css3, but even more, html5. Put simply, we’re jumping the gun.
We’re not anywhere near the period of time whereby these standards can be used properly for the vast majority of users. Yes, graceful degradation and progressive enhancement do allow us to make use of them for those vendors that have supplied standards-based browsers, but the time being, maybe only 25-35% of users will get to experience these enhancements. So why put so much effort into transforming your sites and communities to use these standards? Is it worth it?
HTML5 is, believe-it-or-not, a pretty large step forward. While it’s simply an extension of html 4 and more than anything, introduces some different namespaces and tags, I keep coming back to thinking whether we should bother with it right now. It won’t be until IE9 or an IE8 service pack/update that the majority of users will get any use out of it, and for large companies and communities, it represents hundreds/thousands of hours of work, changing your design/style guides, and means often times having multiple code/script bases for different browsers that represent which support html5, and which don’t.
Now I’m coming at this from a freelance/contract developer. I have a task, and it’s in my best interest to make it work in the top 3 browsers (ie6, ie7, ff3) as fast as possible, and as cleanly (the fewer moving parts, the better). I might use some css3, I might use some transparent png’s, but that’s my limit. Going over board with css3 and integrating html5 is not a priority of mine, and would represent extra hours which I couldn’t work into my pricing/rates. I would rather spend my time writing semantic, standards based code, and open sourcing anything and everything I could to help out others; at least until one of the top two browsers supports html5 (ff isn’t there yet, despite many claims that it’s the number 2 browser next to ie7).
This approach by me has it’s problems. Namely, if people don’t push technologies that aren’t yet wide spread, than the major vendors won’t feel as pressured to support them. I understand this, and in many ways, it’s up to the big guys to help push new technologies. But this brings me back to the post’s title. Are we jumping the gun? We’re years away from a top two browser from supporting either css3/html5. So should we spend all this effort, time and money developing for something that most user’s won’t even experience?
There are exceptions to this; if I’m designing an app/site for an intranet where I can control the browser type. Or if it’s for a specific niche (eg. graphic designers, web developers) where I can safely assume or pressure the visitor to use a new-age browser (safari, chrome, ff3). Then maybe I’ll take the time to learn the new semantics, make the site pop like it never could. I’ll spend the extra time, effort and money to create a richer experience. But these are exceptions, not the rules.
These are thoughts/ramblings that have been going through my head for quite some time now. They aren’t polished, they aren’t definite, but they are something that I’ve thought of, and I assume other’s in the community have as well.
While these are my thoughts, and I’ll stick by them for a while, I won’t stop trying to learn about the new technologies. Progressive enhancement, ajax, json, jsonp, and whatever else comes along, I’ll jump into, just like css3/html5, but just like ajax didn’t become popular until XHR became widespread in most browsers, I won’t make use of it (with certain exceptions) until major vendors (m$) decide to give me the tools to do so.
Script/Asset abuse: this is getting ridiculous!
Frameworks like YUI, JQuery, Mootools, Dojo, etc., are arguably the best thing to have happened to JavaScript in 10 years. I remember when I first learned about their existence. I was coding my own animation script (functional, not OO, and definitely not efficient) that didn’t do anything fancy; just scrolled up and down. I remember then hearing about dojo, and thinking I’d wasted so much time.
Then what I did, was go around to all the different frameworks. I don’t even think JQuery existed in it’s current incarnation at that point (December of 2005), and I looked around at as many as I could (dojo, mootools, and a few others that have since become relics). This post though, isn’t about the greatness of these frameworks; rather it’s about the terrible abuse.
With any new technology, there will be people who embrace it for ease of use and creating a new standard, and then there will be those who completely abuse it. The screen shot below is a perfect example of that (click it for the full size):
If you can’t see what I have a problem with, then you need to leave this post right now. For everyone else, this is an absolute joke. This is for a travel promotion site called StudentCity. My count of javascript assets: 20 (excluding any dynamically load ajax/jsonp requests). My count of css assets: 11.
These tallies were retrieved via after the DOM had been rendered, so they may not match up perfectly with the source, but I assure you they’re accurate.
If you visit this site, you’re not going to notice too much. A few swfs, a bit of animation, and a few non-css related hover effects. In no way, should this account for the number of requests for just js/css assets. It doesn’t make sense, and is terrible programming/development. I understand that in many projects, control is sometimes non-existent. You need to conform to someone elses demands, some other developers tendencies, or some other designers inexperience. But for the firm who developed this site, if anyone had taken a look at the source after it had been finished, a huge red flag should have gone up.
Concatenating files is easy; minimizing requests is easy, and a faster client side render time will actually make you money, for a relatively low cost (maybe 2 hours). This speaks to what frameworks are doing these days.
JS frameworks, and even php/server side ones like CakePHP and CodeIgniter (ones I’m working with now) are leading to a generation of websites and applications that were developed by people who have very little idea what they’re doing. I don’t think it’s much different than the age of Frontpage/Dreamweaver/GoLive developed sites, but it’s certainly not something that you should be paying for it you’re working with a development firm. It’s annoying as a developer to see this, and probably a do-or-die thing if I were to be working with or hiring another developer to work with me.