

Prototype 1.7 - kuahyeow
http://www.prototypejs.org/2010/11/22/prototype-1-7

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nestlequ1k
Anyone still using Prototype for new projects? I have a few legacy rails apps
(over 3 yrs old) that use it, but like most people I've have moved on to
jQuery.

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jwpage
I used to favour Prototype.js over jQuery for more complex JS apps and leave
jQuery for smaller tweaks.

Nowadays I'd definitely consider something on top of jQuery instead, such as
backbone.js (<http://documentcloud.github.com/backbone>), eyeballs.js
(<https://github.com/paulca/eyeballs.js>) or sammy.js(
<http://code.quirkey.com/sammy>).

~~~
nestlequ1k
Agreed, underscore and backbone.js are amazing. JQuery is awesome at dom
manipulation, backbone is great at structuring reusable js components, and
underscore provides the prototype like helpers for manipulating collections
(underscore.strings is also an essential library).

These 3 tools have me loving js development to the same degree when I first
started using prototype (before the project stagnated and died).

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jeswin
What I loved about Prototype (apart from changing my opinion about Javascript)
was that it sort of extended the language itself, and made more possible with
less. But now, I feel coffeescript is a better way to go. What I hated about
Prototype was performance. And jQuery is way better there.

This seems to be like Firefox v/s Webkit. Prototype 2.0 is going to fix a lot
of things (by not extending the DOM), but that approach is in many ways closer
to jQuery.

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jashkenas
One thing that we're trying to maintain with CoffeeScript is that the
generated code is just as performant as you would have written in raw JS --
i.e. loops are just loops. It would be lovely if that sort of performance were
possible in a JavaScript library that supplied "each", but sadly, it's not.

~~~
jeswin
The verbosity problem in JS cannot be solved with libraries, although methods
like "each" made life a lot easier.

Seeing CoffeeScript is the first time I've felt I can write a full app in
Javascript. You and your team have produced something truly significant.

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jeroen
From the "What's next" section:

 _The next bugfix version (1.7.0.1) will feature a rewrite of the DOM code to
be easier to read and faster at the same time._

That sounds like a lot of impact for a bugfix release.

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jwpage
It does sound like a lot of impact. As long as there's no developer impact and
the API remains stable, however, I'm a-okay with the devs pushing something
like that into a bugfix release.

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invisible
I hate that they approach minified versions with, "Do it yourself." 1.7.0.1 is
what 1.7 was suppose to be and there is no ETA at all. The future of Prototype
is so much brighter in FuseJS[1] once it is out of beta.

1\. <http://fusejs.com>

