WebSitesOfNote

JavaScript as a real language: "My new job will take me much further into JavaScript than I have gone in the past, even though I am not the JavaScript guy. I mentioned some time ago that JavaScript is underestimated, but I still have not learned (much less internalized) all of those lessons. Alex Russell gives some fundamental principles of JavaScript (which he erroneously calls idioms) which would go a long way toward modernizing my approach to the language. These days there are many powerful JavaScript libraries available. They are great either as a toolkit to use in web apps, or as advanced textbooks in how JavaScript can be used. Here's a sampling: prototype provides an AJAX framework and lots of other JavaScript utilities. It is often used as a foundation by other libraries in this list. Behaviour lets you add JavaScript handlers to elements using CSS syntax rather than onClick attributes. script.aculo.us provides lots of cool functionality like visual effects, autocompletion, and drag and drop. Rico provides AJAX, visual effects, and drag and drop. Dojo is a large library providing many features, enough that it is available in different subsets ('Editions'). Included are AJAX, visual effects, and rich text editing. jQuery provides CSS and XPath selectors for accessing elements, among other tools. For a more complete list, check out Saddam Azad's JavaScript librarie"