Every time I see a website like this I think "I really wish I had both the visual design and front-end engineering talents to make something like this happen". I have enough problems getting text to go where I want it to go and while I can read and understand Javascript I just have no clue where I'd even start going about getting, e.g., semi-transparent balloons with rounded corners as a rollover effect. That would probably take me a week to get right, after much copy/pasting.
I suppose that, somewhere out there, there is a front end engineer really wishing he could alter the Big Freaking Enterprise Web App backing his AJAX calls.
"scripty2 is a complete rewrite and reimplementation of script.aculo.us, with are modular structure intended to ease the development of highly customized user interface effects and behaviours."
(disclaimer: I'm Thomas Fuchs) The reasons are manifold, but the core reasons are as follows:
1) the scriptaculous fx framework was the first serious JS/DOM animation toolkit out there, and by version 1.8.X it was full of old cruft (e.g. hacks for browsers no one uses anymore)
2) I personally needed some more mature effects for my projects (like the pepsicozeitgeist twitter vis amy hoy did with me)
and maybe most important:
3) hacking just for the fun of it :)
Seeing as how you're watching this discussion, I'll throw out an unrelated question:
It seems that jQuery has gained a lot of momentum lately. What are your thoughts on it and prototype? I'm just an 'end user' and try not to do too awfully much with JS, and they all seem like nice work to me... I'm just curious which way the wind's blowing.
I think there are several really great frameworks out there, each one target to specific audiences. I see the current situation as follows:
jQuery: The "I don't have to learn JavaScript" audience, quick+easy to improve certain page interactions. Tons of plugins, but quality and customization options vary wildly.
Prototype: The "I'd like to roll my own components" audience, very Ruby-like, super-easy to do your own specialized UI stuff. Has a learning curve, however.
Dojo, YUI: The "I'm enterprisey and like to edit configuration files" audience. Componentized frameworks, which can do everything (but make tradeoffs for complexity).
And of course there are others, serving various niches.
Your choice depends: Site or app? And do you just want to skin some prefab components, but your site will look like thousands of others, or do you want to roll your own and do more complex stuff and stand out of the crowd?
Well, Thomas Fuchs also created script.aculo.us, so I'm thinking he can rewrite it if he wants. I suppose he and the handful of people he worked with on Scripty2 with thought they could do it better, faster, lighter, whatever if they started over.
I suppose that, somewhere out there, there is a front end engineer really wishing he could alter the Big Freaking Enterprise Web App backing his AJAX calls.