shall I move from prototype to jquery?

Question

Lastly I\'ve been feeling like jQuery is slowly becoming the defacto standard in JS libraries (I might be wrong!), or at least that is more active than the rest of the framework

Answer 1

I have been using Prototype since 2006 and I echo Pekka's feelings about ugly code. Prototype is more elegant.

I have been a staunch supporter of the Prototype (+Scriptaculous) community but sadly, Prototype is losing mindshare and market share. Careers can be built on knowing jQuery, not so much for Prototype.

It seems jQuery people seem to be happier using plug-ins, without knowing how they work, whereas Prototype people seem to be more hard-core programmers and tend to build what they need themselves.

That being said, my transition to jQuery was not all that painful. The functionality is much the same, only with different names. There is a lot more documentation and sample code available, making it easier to pick up.

Frameworks are moving targets, sometimes leap-frogging each other in terms of speed and features. All continue to improve. Saying X is better than Y will change over time

I think Prototype's saving grace may be Scripty2. This is an amazing new animation engine using Prototype. If that catches on (and makes it to market, it's not even in Beta) there may be a resurgence in interest in Prototype. Beyond that I think it will always have its supporters, but will fade away from the mainstream.

Answer 2

I think you should. I use jquery religiously, and I'm not a Javascript Pro. It's ease of use I think, is one of the most powerful things about it.

Answer 3

if you care about getting another job maybe move to JQuery. If you care about beautiful, intuitive JavaScript stick with prototoype - its not going away!

Answer 4

I think the fact that Microsoft has integrated it into the ASP.NET Ajax Framework speaks worlds for jQuery. My current employer standardized on it last year and I can find more job posting specifically asking for jQuery and any other library.

Answer 5

As far as i know, Prototype and jQuery mostly overlap, except that jQuery focuses mainly on DOM manipulation, ajax, events, etc, and doesn't really have some of the capabilities that Prototype has, like classes, inheritance, etc. However, if you don't need these things, and only want a framework for cross browser DOM manip, ajax, events, etc, then I think jQuery is the way to go.

Answer 6

To answer your questions directly: Yes, you should switch. And yes, you are right.

I know you said you don't like brackets...can you provide a snippet of prototype code that you consider beautiful (I'll jQuery-itize it for comparison)?