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What's your opinion of technologies like Node, WebGL, MooTools, and GWT? All are interesting to me but I'm not sure where to invest my time.

geuis 16y ago
Node is a server-side js environment. I use it all the time now and its awesome. I still use Python & Django for web development, but in the next few years I will feel completely comfortable switching over to a javascript stack entirely. WebGL is something I haven't played with much, mainly due to small market share yet. With so much out there, I've had to prioritize on what to learn and when. I recommend http://learningwebgl.com/ http://learningwebgl.com/ to get started. MooTools is mainly a client-side library. I've found that its syntax, like that of YUI and Prototype are excessive and limited. While you can use any library to get the same work done, I've stuck with jQuery because its just more natural for me to work with it. Its syntax, features, and widespread support are all positive reasons to use jQuery over other libraries. GWT was designed to let Java engineers write javascript in Java. That's just a bad, bad idea. The resulting javascript code doesn't really take advantage of the language the way it was designed. It helps Java engineers feel like they can write web stuff, but really the end result is not often very pretty.
- jhuni 16y ago
  For small scripts there is no reason to use GWT, however, for large AJAX applications it can be incredibly advantageous. GWT performs comprehensive optimizations - in-lining methods, limiting property access, removing dead code, limiting code size, and more. http://code.google.com/p/google-web-toolkit/wiki/CompilerOptimizations http://code.google.com/p/google-web-toolkit/wiki/CompilerOpt... As a result of all of these optimizations, GWT can produce code that is as fast if not faster then hand written JavaScript. The reason for this is that most large JavaScript projects tend to use a lot of dynamic features (such as dynamic binding) and other conveniences instead of writing super optimized JavaScript code by hand. Also care to explain what you mean when you say "It helps Java engineers feel like they can write web stuff" are you implying that JavaScript engineers create "web stuff" well Java engineers don't?

geuis 16y ago

Node is a server-side js environment. I use it all the time now and its awesome. I still use Python & Django for web development, but in the next few years I will feel completely comfortable switching over to a javascript stack entirely. WebGL is something I haven't played with much, mainly due to small market share yet. With so much out there, I've had to prioritize on what to learn and when. I recommend http://learningwebgl.com/ http://learningwebgl.com/ to get started. MooTools is mainly a client-side library. I've found that its syntax, like that of YUI and Prototype are excessive and limited. While you can use any library to get the same work done, I've stuck with jQuery because its just more natural for me to work with it. Its syntax, features, and widespread support are all positive reasons to use jQuery over other libraries. GWT was designed to let Java engineers write javascript in Java. That's just a bad, bad idea. The resulting javascript code doesn't really take advantage of the language the way it was designed. It helps Java engineers feel like they can write web stuff, but really the end result is not often very pretty.

jhuni 16y ago
For small scripts there is no reason to use GWT, however, for large AJAX applications it can be incredibly advantageous. GWT performs comprehensive optimizations - in-lining methods, limiting property access, removing dead code, limiting code size, and more. http://code.google.com/p/google-web-toolkit/wiki/CompilerOptimizations http://code.google.com/p/google-web-toolkit/wiki/CompilerOpt... As a result of all of these optimizations, GWT can produce code that is as fast if not faster then hand written JavaScript. The reason for this is that most large JavaScript projects tend to use a lot of dynamic features (such as dynamic binding) and other conveniences instead of writing super optimized JavaScript code by hand. Also care to explain what you mean when you say "It helps Java engineers feel like they can write web stuff" are you implying that JavaScript engineers create "web stuff" well Java engineers don't?