yui or yui3

Question

Is YUI3 ready mature enough? What are its advantages and disadvantes vs YUI

Answer 1

YUI3 is still in flux. The code-base is going to keep changing and features or syntax you rely on now may change abruptly if you link directly to the YUI3 files on the yahoo servers. YUI2 is quite capable and would be the safer bet if you don't want to go rewriting your code to accommodate unforeseen changes.

Answer 2

Andy,

Corwin is incorrect about files changing on the yui.yahooapis.com servers -- if you use the YUI 3 PR 2 release from our servers, those files will remain there even when subsequent releases come out.

It's true that the API will change some as we move toward beta 1 (scheduled for June) and then to GA. We will undoubtedly make changes that will require your attention and time as you upgrade. That -- and the fact that YUI 3 doesn't contain all of the functionality of YUI 2.7.0 (the current release in the 2.x codeline) -- is the primary reason to hold off right now.

You can learn more about YUI 3 and how it's different from 2.7.0 here:

http://video.yahoo.com/watch/3711767/10207432

We're using YUI 3 on the next version of Yahoo's homepage. You can read about that here:

http://yuiblog.com/blog/2008/11/11/frontpage-and-yui3/

Regards, Eric

Answer 3

I've been using YUI3 exclusively since the PR2 release. There has been a lot that has changed since then, but my specific application code didn't have to change too much. I have also been tracking all the major changes in YUI3 during the past months.

It's now June, and things appear to be coming close to beta 1 as I'm seeing a ton of documentation related commits. I would recommend using YUI3 over 2 if you're looking for very nice, feature-rich base JavaScript library. If you need a bunch of generic widgets, it is possible to have both YUI2 and YUI3 running together, although things will be complicated and your code will be using mixed APIs; but you may want to stick with YUI2.

YUI3 is becoming a pretty great library and framework, it has matured greatly in functionality, performance, and cohesiveness since PR2.