December 2011 Mailbag

I get loads of questions each day so I decided to take a few moments to answer your questions about JavaScript, Dojo, MooTools, jQuery, and more.

How did you get so good at everything you do? How did you practice without feeling like you wasted time?

I'm the first one to say that I'm not good at everything; I'm definitely not. One thing I am, however, is persistent when I really love something. I love working with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, XHR, etc. so I spend loads of free time experimenting and trying to master the best techniques. I love every minute of it, and you can only improve that way. I'm not particularly interested in PHP anymore, so I tend to not enjoy spending time with the language, and thus have a hard time improving. My advice at getting good at something is to love it; when you love it, you do whatever you can to be great!

The only time I feel like effort has been wasted is when I wasn't interested in the topic enough to begin with; over the years, I've learned to stop working on a blog post when I stop caring right away. If I think others will find it interesting, I usually put forth the effort to complete it. I also keep the mindset of "if it will save another developer time and hassle, complete it for the common good." That's what this blog was founded on: paying it back.

What technology stack do you use for unit testing JavaScript?

Since I spend 40-50 hours per week work on enterprise-level Dojo applications, I work a lot with DOH, the Dojo Toolkit's unit testing framework. DOH allows for basic functional tests, performance tests, and even synthetic event testing with the DOH robot (which is essentially a Java Applet controlled by a JavaScript API). And since the Dojo Toolkit itself is tested with DOH unit tests, the API is very similar and writing unit tests can be fairly quick. Since Dojo relies largely on Deferred, a special doh.Deferred resource is available for easy testing of those.

Recently, however, my colleague Bryan Forbes created eventd, a synthetic event testing framework for use with Dojo. What I like most about eventd is that it creates synthetic events without the need of the DOH robot, so you don't need to worry about Java quirkiness. Bryan's working hard to remove eventd's Dojo dependency, and if eventd becomes fully library agnostic, eventd should be used by everyone.

One thing to point out quick: you can use DOH with any library, and I recommend you try it!

In what situations would you use Dojo, Mootools, or jQuery (if at all?); in what environment do they shine most?

I get this question all the time. Here's the quick answer:

I recommend using the Dojo Toolkit if you're building an advanced or enterprise level web application, or you think your application could become enterprise level. I also recommend using Dojo if your application will be UI-heavy (because the Dijit UI framework is amazing!), uses advanced IO (data stores, lots of XHR, JSONP, etc.), or charts or vector graphics will be used. Dojo will of course work on any size website, but the toolkit really shines when it comes to large scale websites.

I recommend using MooTools if you have a small to medium-sized website (...a non-Dojo site). MooTools packs a ton of power into a small Core package and is supported by many top-class More classes. These resources serve to empower the JavaScript language. Beyond the resources provided by the MooTools team, there are thousands quality plugins within the MooTools Forge, so if your application suddenly needs a new feature, there's a central location to get that plugin.

Both are extremely modular and teach great coding practices. They're both efficient, extendable, and written by brilliant JavaScript developers.

As for jQuery, I don't have a recommendation for when to use it. Nothing against jQuery, but I've never needed to go outside of MooTools and Dojo. No need. #MoojoFTW

Which PHP framework do you prefer?

To be completely honest, I tend to hate PHP frameworks. Why? They're usually over-abstracted, slow as hell, and difficult to debug. I've always found creating my own "mini-framework" as the best option, and then modify and add functionality as the situations come up. That way I have complete control over everything that's being loaded.

PHP frameworks are nice in that there's usually a community behind them, loads of plugins are available, and they have sexy names. I've recently used the Yii PHP framework and if you really need some, I recommend giving it a try. It seems much more lightweight that other PHP frameworks I've tried.

Where do you find the time to blog?

Most of my posts are written on weekends while I watch European football (not Arsenal games, where I pace around my living room for 90 minutes). Weekends provide me time to experiment without being interrupted. On the rare occasions that I'm compelled to write during the week, I grab a bottle of wine and my wife is much more understanding.