Hey Rey, I fit your criteria pretty well. My background is in graphic design, then html/css and most recently javascript.
> 1) Which library (or libraries) did you choose? > 2) What led you to use the library (libraries)? First, I started working with jquery because it was easy, but the code started getting out of hand really fast and I foresaw it being difficult to maintain. I was initially most impressed by mootools v1.1, but was intimidated by it (even the simple examples seemed beyond me). Finally, after playing with jquery enough to get my feet wet, I switched back to mootools after 1.2 for the OO. I needed something that would give me a way to keep things organized and reusable and Ia didn't know enough at the time about the prototype model on my own to take advantage of it. > 3) How has it improved your work? Integrating client side functionality used to be a huge pain (we have a server side guy inhouse) and was basically depended on whether or not we could find a plugin that did exactly what we needed and was easy enough for me to use. Now, when we need something, we just build it or modify it. Huge improvement :) > 4) At which point in the site design & development process do you > consider using a JS library? UI design > 5) Which features of the specific libraries you selected to do you use > regularly? All the html manipulation, the fx, the string and array methods, all the style manipulation capabilities, and event handling probably make up the bulk of it > 6) Do you develop to strict HTML/XHTML standards? If so, has your > choice of library helped you to continue being standards-compliant or > has it hindered your work? If you could elaborate on pros and cons, > that would be a huge help. Generally we develop to the strict standards, but if there is a choice and it seems reasonable, we will occasionally leave the standards behind. The lib hasn't really had an effect on that for us. > 7) Do you develop with progressive enhancement in mind? If so, do the > libraries you use help you with that? Having it all object oriented makes that muuuuch easier. > 8) In terms of CSS, do you find the libraries meeting your needs or > are there limitations that you're finding? I think that the selectors in mootools could use more central documentation. I find things scattered between the css standards, the mootools docs, the blog, random articles, the book. Would love to see something compiled/complete. But the answer is always there to be found, so I haven't had too much trouble. > 9) How do you leverage the JS libs to affect your use of CSS in your > web applications? I try to keep them separate whenever possible. I try to only use css in the js when its not feasible to call a class or just not worth it (like setting display: none) > 10) How quickly were you able to leverage the JS libs to help you in > your development? Very quickly, tho the learning curve with mootools is def a little steeper/ > > The answers will help me better understand some of the pros and cons > of the various JS libs. > > Also, if there are other areas that I should research, please don't > hesitate to mention it. Again, my goal is to help designers understand > how JS libs can help them and I'm looking at this from a library > agnostic perspective. > > Rey... Hope this is what you were looking for, Troy
