[Catalyst] rich ajax UI component libraries for Catalyst?

[Ashley Pond V]

On Mon, Jul 26, 2010 at 9:13 AM, Andrew Jones
<andrewjones86 at googlemail.com> wrote:
> The problem is that both Prototype and jQuery use the $ variable.
> jQuery provides a compatibility mode so it can work with Prototype,
> but I don't think Prototype provides a compatibility mode.

If called "correctly" there should be no conflicts with jQuery.

   jQuery(function($) {...}

I am going to hate on ExtJS for a moment. I was very
interested/infatuated with it until I tried to use it for a big
project. It is shiny and pretty but it's also a pain to integrate and
it, as of the version I was using last year, doesn't allow for
graceful degradation; i.e., your forms are literally in JS, not in
HTML, so no JS means no website. While today this isn't the SEO
disaster it once was and some nines of users have JS on, it still
isn't cool. I admit that a tightly integrated Catalyst controller
could bind/share configs with ExtJS so that it wrote the same output
(e.g., from a FormFu config) regardless but that's also, to me, not
cool.

ExtJS takes over your application. This may be what you want and it
really does have a lot of great features so take my bagging on it with
whatever dose of salt your doctor recommends. (I'm a jQuery fanboi and
I admit the jQuery UI suite is not up to scratch for features --
though it is easier to style and integrate; and in my view, adapt or
customize -- one of the reasons there aren't as many official plugins
for things in jQuery is that they are generally so easy to write for
yourself).

There is also, as mentioned already, the commercial license aspect. I
encourage devs to stop using ExtJS for CPAN projects because it means
some of us can not use your code without ponying up a bucket of cash
which might not bother a big company but would certainly hurt a small
web contract.

-Ashley