JavaScript libraries

[Chris]

I look for a nice, small, well tested, popular, google hosted JS library with a lot of examples and good documentation (not necessarily all of these qualites have to be present at once).

I need it mostly to make expandable menu, but would like if it had more features in case I need them in future. Strictly something you would choose when writing BBG (no strange feature that are not usable when making games).

[raestlyn]

jQuery. Amazing amount of widgets, tutorials and it is google hosted. Not to mention its probably the most popular JS toolkit there is.

[Chris]

Since people are lazy and won't post, I posted below what I sqeezed out of them from our chat
Might be useful if you encounter similar dilemma (and for me so I don't forget).


http://code.google.com/apis/ajaxlibs/ (list of JS libraries hosted by google, generally a nice thing since you can assume it might be cached by visitor already and that is has been checked, will be updated and so on)

The most common, according to our BBG chat, would be jQuery + jQuery UI (a pack of plugins).
http://jquery.com/ (jQuery homepage)
http://jqueryui.com/demos/ (list of plugins that are included in jQuery UI)
If you go for it jQuery would be 24kb and jQueryUI 200kb (but you can download custom plugins set or plugins separately which would reduce the size considerably)
http://jquery.bassistance.de/accordion/demo/?p=1.1.2.5 (example of expandable menu library jQuery+jQueryUI)

http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/3/ (Yahoo thing, does css and js)


It would be nice if fellow BBG devs posted also their personal preferences. And which parts of such libs could be useful for BBGs.

[jannesiera]

Just a few links I took from my bookmarks:
http://www.amplesdk.com/
http://processingjs.org/
http://mccormick.cx/projects/jsGameSoup/
http://www.ohloh.net/p/canvas-2d-game-engine
http://gamequery.onaluf.org/

[raestlyn]

More jQuery plugins, about 3-4 thousand: http://plugins.jquery.com/.
And there is even more when you just google what you are looking for...

I do like MooTools, jQuery and Prototype, but they all do different things and are not strictly comparable. jQuery is a toolkit that is based on DOM manipulation (and is pretty damn good at it) while Prototype framework is a basis for other frameworks/toolkits because it extends the basics of Javascript objects, arrays etc. MooTools in the other hand is nicely built modular system that you can expand when needed and it can be used to do what ever either Proto or JQ are doing.
I would recommend that you read this. It sums it up pretty nicely.

And for useful stuff for bbgs, I'm making my own js library. I after I finish the code comments/api I can post it in this site so you guys can comment it I feel like that the other frameworks/libraries/toolkits are bloated, and you really don't need all of their options.

[Truthseeker]

jQuery is popular and all but would anyone have examples on why would it be better than other popular libraries for PBBG development?

[raestlyn]

jQuery is popular and all but would anyone have examples on why would it be better than other popular libraries for PBBG development?

Maybe because jQuery makes javascript feel like something else than it is due its very easy to get by syntax? Its a great choice for novices who are new to the language ( or who don't want to learn a whole new language just for some UI tricks and Ajax) and for experienced users who can take the full advantage of its quirks. I personally feel that MooTools is much more powerful than jQuery, but its learning curve is much higher so it may not be the easiest choice.

Like I said before, its not better (or worse) than any other popular library.

[Barrikor]

I use jQuery for DOM and Ajax. I agree with Raestlyn here, jQuery doesn't feel like Javascript at all. It is very simplified, but the byproduct is that it is less flexible (IMHO).

It works for me just fine though, as Javascript has never been one of my strongest points.