YUI - Pros and Cons

Question

I'm about to begin a new project and plan to use YUI and my JS and CSS framework for the following reasons:

1. Treeview with tri-state checkboxes (seems to be the best implementation I could find)
2. Calandar (seen others, but since #1 is on YUI, I'm glad it also has calendar)
3. CSS framework (was going to use 960, but might as well go 100% Yahoo)

I plan to use only 1 JS framework.

Does anyone see any problems with my decision?

Answer 1

If you want support for your choice of javascript libraries, this might be telling:

Stack Overflow tags:

• yui × 335
• prototype × 673
• extjs × 327
• jquery × 17136

Answer 2

YUI is simple, easy to use, with very good examples, a very useful user group and developers who respond quickly and to the object. I have used it successfully in a few projects, including one where I had to extend the calendar to support week and month selection.

If you are comfortable with YUI and you think the components you need are best implemented there, I don't see why you wouldn't use it.

Answer 3

Unless you have a fair amount of experience with YUI already, I'd suggest having a try with JQuery. It is well supported and easy to learn and use.

Answer 4

I have used YUI for a long time, and highly recommend it. - It's very well documented - The YUI forum is great for getting answers - The code is very well written, very easy to pick the components you want/need (even easier with YUI 3), and not download the whole framework - A very feature-rich set of widgets (calendar, treeview, carousel, autocomplete, etc) - When reporting a bug to the developers you quickly get a reply - The fact that YAHOO use it themselves on their own highly trafficked sites should give you some extra confidence that it will perform well, and be supported for a long time...

I also find this article to be very true, using YUI has without a doubt improved my javascript skills. A lot! http://foohack.com/2007/08/yui-crockford-module-pattern-vs-prototypes-class-function/

Answer 5

To be honest I really like YUI. Most of the links are from YUI2, but they are also working hard on YUI3.

Pros:

1. A lot of documentation. The quality of the documentation is also pretty good. It is sometimes a lot of documentation you have to read(not really necessary if one of the examples does what you need).
2. A lot of code examples. Which you can play with immediately.
3. Good javascript API.
4. Has a CDN which hosts there library for you. This can significantly improve performance because. I also would like to notice that YAHOO's CDN combo's files which is another big boost for performance. This used to be a big pro for me, but now google also hosted the most influatential libraries for you so this isn't such a big pro as it was to me anymore(I still like that they combo javascript files).
5. active open source development(If you like you can contribute yourself via github) by a lot of really good javascript programmers. For example: Douglas Crockford, Eric Miraglia, and a lot more.

Cons:

1. Sometimes a little verbose(YUI2) but in YUI3 they have improved this in my opinion not really a con. Also a lot of users liked the verbose syntax (I liked it most of the times).

Verdict:

• Overall YUI is really a good javascript library if you ask me.