

Ask HN: "best" UI JavaScript library/framework? - hippich

I have an idea for another application and want to do it "right" this time just to learn new stuff. This will be desktop-like web application. Right now I am trying to decide which library/framework to learn and use for browser part. I really like Cappuccino look'n'feel, but their Objective J look weird to me. Is there is something like Cappuccino with plain JavaScript or it's better to invest some time into learning this Objective J thing? Any thoughts are really appreciated!<p>Update: I am looking for open source libraries/frameworks =)
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kls
I would recommend Dojo over ExtJS for building "web applications", out of the
"heavy duty" frameworks Dojo leads the pack by far.

If you want to get up and running quick then I would suggest jQuery, it is
drop dead simple and extremely light weight. But it can start to fall down (in
terms of maintainability) when you are trying to manage a large code base.

From a pure employment perspective (what job postings are looking for) jQuery
is the hottest followed by Dojo.

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gmosx
I would _love_ to see a pure Java version of Cappuccino as well.

In the meantime I use Google Closure. Certainly not the best library but it
suits my needs (web applications for the Google Marketplace). Even though it
looks ugly at first sight, it is actually an effective solution.

One drawback is the relative lack of support from Google regarding docs,
tutorials.

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grayrest
While it's relatively immature in terms of widgets available, I like yui3 (NOT
2) for building application type sites. It has a strong component model and
the attributes/events system and widget base are excellent and I believe it's
the only one that's really serious about progressive enhancement.

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olalonde
ExtJS would be a good bet. Its parent company, now known as Sencha, just
"acquired" 2 popular Javascript frameworks, jQTouch and Raphael. They also
received an investment from Sequoia capital recently. The only downside is
that it requires a license for non open source projects.

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FranklyAndy
ExtJS is definitely a great solution for building a "desktop-like" application
on the web. However, if you have solid design skills, a framework such as
jQuery UI provides a great deal of freedom in creating some really interesting
and remarkable interfaces for the web.

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mcav
SproutCore (<http://sproutcore.com/>) is essentially like Cappuccino, but not
Objective-J.

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hippich
Thank you for this hint. Any idea about licensing? I can't find anything about
it on their site. Is it GPL or something else?

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_delirium
It's under a permissive (MIT/BSD-style) open-source license, though you're
right that it doesn't seem to be mentioned anywhere on the site, at least that
I can find. There's a license.js file in the actual distribution, though:
<http://github.com/sproutit/sproutcore/blob/master/license.js>

