First jquery and prototype are both javascript, how do you compare them to javascript?
Before you even start to talk about libraries, how well do you know javascript?
Here's a quick test, without googling can you answer these questions:
How do you use javascript's prototype?
What is the major drawback of creating a prototype for an element, when using Hash-like objects?
How do you create DIV element and put it into another element without using innerHTML?
How do you put some text into an element without using innerHTML?
What do you use try/catch for?
How do you add an onclick to an element without putting the onclick="" into the HTML?
I've got a bunch of other ones and they're all rhetorical; I don't really care what your answers are. If you don't know most of those right off the bat, you don't know javascript nearly as well as you think you do. If that is the case, you really need to learn about DOM scripting and not be bothered with additional libraries. How do you learn javascript as well as frequent posters here? You start a project or you try to duplicate someone else's project without copying any code. If you are duplicating and can do it without looking at the original author's code, you are on the right track (and you should be posting here more)! You come to DevShed forums and try to answer as many questions as you can or at least point people in the right direction. When I open the javascript forum, it is a challenge for me to answer any thread with zero replies and read through any active ones on the page. There are very few questions posted here that I
won't
answer, most of them are posted by people who thing my job is to answer their stupid questions  When you answer questions about something, you learn it better yourself.
If you can answer those, read the documentation for prototype and jquery and choose which is best for your project, since you already know javascript, it should be easy to choose one. Just read through prototype's API and jquery's documentation. They both have many similar features, though there are many differences too. I use prototype.js for several reasons:
Separation of Object and Hash.
It is easy to extend.
scriptaculous uses prototype.js
Easy for an experienced javascripter to learn.
I know people who use jquery and others who are purists and prefer to not use any of it.
I hope this provides you with way more information that you had originally expected! |
