YUI and / or jQuery for a new project?

Question

If I am starting a new project, how can I choose between using YUI 2, YUI 3 and jQuery?

I know that there are a few more questions / answers that you can use together, but I'm trying to figure out what criteria I would have to decide.

Do they overlap?
Is it better in the GUI and the other is better inside? Do they play well together? My understanding of other issues is that they can live in different namespaces, so they can live together, but that does not necessarily mean that it is useful to use both.

Thanks!

Answer 1

If you are not familiar with any of them, I personally found jQuery documentation and APIs that are easier to understand than YUI, at least for simpler things. It also seems to have more detailed jQuery related information than YUI in stackoverflow.

YUI has its users and supporters, so check this out if you ultimately find it suitable for you. He got a huge library of additional modules that you can use for complex web applications.

My usual advice is to go with what you are familiar with, and I say this because I don’t think it's worth dropping it to start learning another from scratch. But if you are not familiar with any of them, then you should check how easy the documentation for both is to understand.

PS I would not recommend YUI2 if you are starting over, as it has been replaced by YUI3, which is much better designed.

Answer 2

We need more information about the type and size of the project before we can offer the appropriate library.

For example, if you are creating a half-complex / large-scale web application, I would suggest Dojo or ExtJs. Otherwise, for small projects, jQuery might be more appropriate. I cannot comment on YUI since I have not used it.

Answer 3

It is impossible to say without knowing the details of the project. Use jQuery or Prototype for things like manipulating the DOM and creating autocomplete, etc. If you need a more powerful Javascript implementation, take a look at ExtJS, which basically is the complete stack structure for Javascript.

Answer 4

Both are JS frameworks and there to help you. YUIs are known to be more natural in them and closer to the original Javascript, while jQuery is known as simpler, and you find more jQuery users and support them with YUI then. However, as mentioned earlier, it depends on the project, if you are likely to create your own widgets, I suggest you go with YUI, but if it looks like a simple e-commerce site in which you just need galleries and a shopping cart go into jQuery, you will quickly learn and implement this. I'm not saying that you can no longer go deeper into jQuery, but my impression is that jQuery is more like CakePHP for PHP, like a framework that quickly pushes you. In my opinion, you do not need to use them side by side in one project, which will simply create overhead, as well as doing what you want to do, i.e. create dialog panels, auto-complete quick searches related to utility events, etc.

I am writing a series of tutorials for beginners and intermediate tiers for YUI users, let me know if you find them useful or if there is anything else where I can help. http://ciitronian.com/blog/tag/yui/