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I don't understand what intuition and gut instincts have to do with JavaScript frameworks. When I evaluate libraries I do not check my emotional state or what m

I don't understand what intuition and gut instincts have to do with JavaScript frameworks. When I evaluate libraries I do not check my emotional state or what my my stomach is telling me. I use a rational process, a heuristic: I check to see how actively developed the library is. If it's on GitHub I check how many people have starred and forked it and when the last commit was. I look at the issues list to see if it has any horrible errors that have been around forever with giant threads. I check the documentation to see if I like what it does. I scan the source code to see if it uses giant functions and globally scoped variables or does other horrible things. I also check for readability. I Google the thing and see if anyone is using it on Twitter. Then I build something small with it and if it helps more than it hurts then maybe it's good to go. The place where this heuristic has failed me is with long term big applications. I chose Google Closure for a startup once and it turned out to make everything take much more time than it should have. It was the write more do less library, but at the time there was no backbone.js and Sproutcore, Cappuccino, dojo and ext.js have all pretty much gone away. So I don't know how I feel about it now, but I definitely wouldn't use gut instinct when I can just apply rational thought.

qntmfred 13y ago
This is why instincts are relevant. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreyfus_model_of_skill_acquisition http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreyfus_model_of_skill_acquisit...
aidos 13y ago
I'm not the downvoter. The process you described is part of the due diligence you go through - checking for activity, longevity etc. You described a good starting point for evaluating a framework (I don't think you should have been down voted for that). Unfortunately, that's not the end of it. As with your Closure example, it's not easy to see the issues until you're up in your neck in them. At that point you have a revelation about how truly borked you are, struggling to make progress when you've gone too far to go back. That's why it makes sense to experiment a bit to see how it feels. That's not something easily quantifiable. If it were quantifiable then there would be no need for these discussions at all. There would only be one framework in any space worth looking at because it would have the best number against it. Unfortunately, in the case of application frameworks, building something small is never going to be enough.
- yukichan 13y ago
  If as a manager or lead engineer someone told me they couldn't put their finger on it but a using a library just didn't "feel right" I'm not sure how I'd respond to it, but it probably would involve asking for more specific information.
  - AdrianRossouw 13y ago
    Precisely. That's why sometimes I need to build something with it, to be able to get that more specific information.

qntmfred 13y ago

This is why instincts are relevant. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreyfus_model_of_skill_acquisition http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreyfus_model_of_skill_acquisit...

aidos 13y ago

I'm not the downvoter. The process you described is part of the due diligence you go through - checking for activity, longevity etc. You described a good starting point for evaluating a framework (I don't think you should have been down voted for that). Unfortunately, that's not the end of it. As with your Closure example, it's not easy to see the issues until you're up in your neck in them. At that point you have a revelation about how truly borked you are, struggling to make progress when you've gone too far to go back. That's why it makes sense to experiment a bit to see how it feels. That's not something easily quantifiable. If it were quantifiable then there would be no need for these discussions at all. There would only be one framework in any space worth looking at because it would have the best number against it. Unfortunately, in the case of application frameworks, building something small is never going to be enough.

yukichan 13y ago
If as a manager or lead engineer someone told me they couldn't put their finger on it but a using a library just didn't "feel right" I'm not sure how I'd respond to it, but it probably would involve asking for more specific information.
- AdrianRossouw 13y ago
  Precisely. That's why sometimes I need to build something with it, to be able to get that more specific information.