I'm currently using the Yahoo YUI javascript library in a couple of my projects.
However, I'm a little concerned about three things. First, they laid off 10% of their employees. Second, their stock price keeps falling: especially after ignoring the MS takeover earlier this year. Third, what if someone does buy them?
The only reason I bring this up is that I tend to build applications that are going to be around for 8 to 10 years.
What would you do?
If the library does what you need it to do today, I see no reason not to use it. 8-10 years is a long time for a web-app but I'd like to think Javascript will still be around.
If you are using it with the expectation that it will have great advancements in the future then your concerns are valid but I think the same can be said for almost any technology/language/library. And since it's open source you or others could continue the development.
Even if Yahoo! goes under, their library is open source. The community will most likely pick it up and continue its development.
I switched to jQuery a while back and have been much happier since doing so. You should consider the fact that YUI is open source, so you could always make any needed updates you need in the future.
Yahoo is a major company that won't end in the next couple of year.
The Yahoo! library is open source so you will have other people to continue to improve it IF Yahoo would go bankrupt.
No technology is 100% safe for 10 years perspective, I think you aren't in danger with it.
In 10 years Javascript will be completely difference and most framework will not be the same so I think whatever you choose you will need to change a lot of thing in 10 years ;) Just be sure to keep a version of the code in you repository to always have the latest version that work for your system and you will be fine.
If your web app exists for more than 4 years in it's current form, then that's amazing. That will mean it's dealt with new browser technologies and possibly loss of existing ones. It also means that the site will not need major modifications in that time.
Most web applications I have worked on have been nearly completely rewritten after 3 years. Usually this is because requirements change; usually there are so many additions in that time that it's a completely different piece of software.
Also, in 8 years, I'm sure the YUI will have changed so much that it won't even be the same. 8 years ago it didn't exist; 8 years from now it maybe something completely different. This doesn't mean you can't continue to use the existing libraries exactly as they are.
The only thing you might think of doing is keeping versions yourself. I don't mean loading them from your own server, but just keeping them somewhere. Even just incase YUI changes something and ends up breaking something you were using--not likely.
I think any library is subject to these same concerns: YUI or jQuery, etc.
Here are your options:
1. Build your own Javascript library
2. Use the existing YUI library
3. Use some other 3rd party Javascript library
You can download the entire YUI library and run it from your own web server, so you don't need to depend on Yahoo servers. The code is open source, so you are free to make enhancements yourself if Yahoo stops building it. Given that, I personally think using YUI is much better than trying to roll your own Javascript library. I see a ton of benefits with virtually no risks.
The question that remains is whether you should use YUI or some other 3rd party library. Just about all the other open source libraries share the same future risk as YUI. I would personally look at the features each library supports and pick the one that currently supports everything you want (or the most of what you want).
I don't think its ever safe to say "one library for all solutions".
Its always best practice to analyze each project you do and then decide which library to use. Whether that be jQuery, YUI, mootools,etc.
To answer your question a bit more bluntly - don't worry. The web is one of the fastest growing and evolving sectors out there. I would be surprised if your projects don't get re-developed (by you or someone else) in the next 3 - 4 years.
As a member of the YUI team, I would add the following to this conversation: Almost everyone who has ever worked on the team is still with Yahoo and still working on YUI -- a remarkable consistency for a project that is now almost four years old. No one can predict the future of Yahoo at this point (or of any other company), but you can bank on the code you're using today. It's free, open under BSD, and no one can prevent you from using it regardless of what may happen in the future.
We continue to be excited about YUI and we think its next four years will be better than the last four.
Regards, Eric
First, It's open source so you can continue to use it no matter what happens to Yahoo. Besides, no one thinks they are going anywhere anytime soon.
Second, no matter what third party library or tool you use, you're always faced with the risk of them abandoning the product at some point, or even worse, the company going out of business.
Regardless of either, you can still use it after either of which happens. And not until then do you really need to switch? Also, the way the web has been changing, you may not want to use YUI in a few months either way, who knows?
Well, Yahoo is still a profitable company with over $3 billion in the bank. I don't expect it to go bankrupt anytime soon unless they do something really awful.
However, Yahoo still needs to cut costs and they could just stop developing YUI to move the developers to other places. Just something to keep in mind on whether or not you choose to continue on w/ YUI. At it's current state, I don't see YUI being a revenue generator which is what Yahoo needs right now.
Everyone else here has already mentioned that YUI is open source (and thus, can be extended, forked, etc)
But the important thing to note is that Yahoo USES YUI on their own web properties. It is a valuable project to them, not just as an internal component library, but as a standardized way to write JavaScript code. Once you wrap your head around that, you'll realize that if Yahoo is still on the internet, it'll probably still be putting resources into YUI.
Also, albeit a huge fan of jQuery, a levelheaded developer cannot seriously recommend a particular framework over another without having a project context and design considerations.
You can't just assume that your square peg is going to fit in everyone's round hole, no matter how hard you try to jam it in.
I've used YUI on a project 1 year ago.
I was pretty satisfied with the library even if I found really hard to grasp the way it worked.
After I while I discovered jQuery and tried it on another project.
Man, that was another world.
These days I am doing some changes to the old YUI project.
I wanted to port everything to the 2.8 (from 2.4.2).
I expected it to be easier but it wasn't.
After having spent few months on jQuery I must admit that YUI is overly complex.
You can do almost everything and configure every aspect of your App but, well, it takes ages to understand things, or at lease for me.
jQuery is much better and faster.
The plugin system is amazing.
I didn't try YUI 3 cause I've decided jQuery is good enough for me.
I learned YUI prior JQuery, and the problem with YUI is (in my opinion) is over engineered, meaning that is more complex. JQUery is fun to code and at the same time you can do everything with it.
My advice would be to use JQuery, and if you need some YUI component then use both. However i don't see any particular advantage of YUI over JQuery.