As a veteran PrototypeJS and Scriptaculous user, I'm curious about the future of these great libraries. As a web developer, I'm also no stranger to JQuery. One of the nice things about JQuery is that it provides a one-size-fits-all javascript library which provides virtually everything you need to develop 99% of your web applications. It provides autocomplete drop-downs, multi-selects, div dialogues, alerts, and modal boxes, as well as datepickers. It also provides a nice theme system which makes it incredibly easy to customize these UI elements to match my color theme on a website.
I personally much prefer the PrototypeJS way of doing things in general. However, I've spent a great deal of time rounding up scripts, or writing my own, to do all the things that JQuery has effectively built in. I've seen some efforts to provide these UI type features by MadRobby in his scripty2 library. Though I've already incorporated his work into several sites I've developed, the documentation is rough, and there doesn't seem to be much progress being made on this library. I know MadRobby is incredibly busy, and I am sure he's working on it whenever he has a chance. There have also been many attempts to create repositories for PrototypeJS libraries. However, none of them are very user friendly, and most of them appear to be run-down and not up-to-date. As a PrototypeJS advocate, this makes PrototypeJS much less accessible for new developers. A lot of developers pass over the amazing functionality of of PrototypeJS and Scriptaculous/Scripty2 for libraries such as JQuery. That's the current lay of the land as far as I can tell. So here are my questions: Is there any master plan for eventually creating some sort of unified complete Javascript library with a UI component (probably via Scripty2)? Is there a plan to create a more official website for tracking PrototypeJS extension libraries? Is there a plan to make Scripty2 ui elements themeable? I recognize that PrototypeJS and Scripty2 are a community effort, and maintained by donated time from very busy individuals. What is the best way for me to get involved to either improve current functionality of the libraries or add new functionality? I'm a pretty skill javascript developer, and I would love to contribute to the PrototypeJS universe. Is there some sort of experimental branch for PrototypeJS and/or Scripty2 where developers can submit more "out there" functionality for consideration? When I look at the Ticket Tracker for PrototypeJS, I see a lot of patches submitted which never get added because they don't really fit the current goals of the project, or add functionality which is too far out of the base line for the current version of PrototypeJS. This is certainly a valid reason to not add functionality, but is also potentially kills a lot of innovation. Thanks for any answers from either the PrototypeJS team or madrobby/ anyone involved with Scripty2. Please don't take any of the above as a negative critique of PrototypeJs or Scripty2. I love both projects, and I very much want to see them flourish, and I am just curious to see where the current developers see the project moving in the future. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Prototype & script.aculo.us" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/prototype-scriptaculous?hl=en.
