Thanks a lot for those kind words!

I’m using DOMAssistant in a new hosted webshop solution I’m developing and will use it in every new project that needs javascript as long as DOMAssistant is actively developed and I would have nothing against contributing code to the project.

So my vote is definitely that you should continue with developing DOMAssistant and it’s community. I have the feeling that eventually will have a strong community. Perhaps not big - but dedicated…

Thank you, I’m very glad to hear those kind words!

1. It gives me what I need
2. It doesn’t give me a bunch of junk I don’t need
3. It’s easy to implement
4. It does what it says
5. It’s well-documented

Keith

Thanks a lot, I’m glad to hear that!
I can’t really say anything more yet but that you will probably be happy with how things will evolve.

I am a bit of a Javascript purist and believe in knowing how to do it myself before relying on a library and therefore try to keep my library usage small. I was turned to DOMAssistant a while ago by Roger and am using it in a large project that I’m not currently at liberty to speak about. However, when it launches I’ll let you know where DOMAssistant is at work.

I really like it because it’s super easy to use, and because I can pick & choose what parts I use. Some things I prefer to build myself, but for others I really like using DOMAssistant.

So, if you haven’t figured it out, my vote is Keep Going! (even if it is for kind of selfish reasons).

Thanks for your input. It’s always good to see input from developers, and what features they themselves specifically are looking for.

Q.1) If I call $(my_id) does it correct the call for Internet Explorer?
(e.g. does it have a fix similar to #3 for bug 152)
Bug 152

Q.2) Does it have a “DOM Builder” function of some kind, and if so does it handle IE’s buggy .setAttribute and or .innerHTML? (Most don’t, but providing something smart here is always appreciated)

Bug 242

Bug 245

Bug 299

innerHTML bugs: http://webbugtrack.blogspot.com/search/label/innerHTML

Q.3) What does this library offer, that any others don’t?

Q.4) How easy is it to extend? The very first thing I’ll be doing with any library is adding more code… this should be fairly easy, and documented.

Thanks a lot for very good input! You make excellent points, very much in lie with what I’m thinking.

Rey,

Yes, we’ll definitely talk.

Rey…

for someone being attracked to your code for the last couple of months your post provides shaking news - but as with most of my preceeding commenters I’d like to encourage you: Go on coding. In which manner is up to you, and one shall (and surely will) respect whatever you decide.

Personally, I can’t see any reason why DomASS should compete actively with the big ones. DA is for me one of the most nifty JS products, created for those knowing the big ones and being capable to specify their disadvantages as well as for the framework beginner. While most people tend to go on with their once-chosen library herd, many like most of the writers above should see DA as the nifty alternative. And this might outline a real perspective: the precious niche product beside the mass solutions.

Some above pointed out marketing issues. Well, DA indeed comes very handcrafted and unpretentious, so others may miss the “webtwonullaty” of let’s say the mootools download assistant (which look-and-feels great, but incidentally serves every chosen module configuration under the same filename). Let them get their coffee-to-go at Starbucks. You provide the Viennese coffee house: Five or six modules, all together or available each particular. Beside of this, building a community seems apparent to me: Giving it a standalone portal, having asked a designer for a nice frontend, can be a good basis for those liking to engage in this project - and the ones preferring “appearance” over functionality

Cheers,
Carsten.

Thanks for good input. Only thing I’d like to point out is I only program when the rest of the family sleeps, so I don’t miss out on time with them, I just become a bit sleep deprived.

Rey,

Thanks for visiting and some great advice! I can’t really say that I feel disappointed or that I would have expected more at this point, really. I have the utmost respect for the time, work and marketing put into JavaScript libraries, so I never expected things to be easier.

It was rather that I, combined with just feeling generally low when i wrote this post, felt that if I were to continue developing DOMAssistant, naturally I want it to become useful for more people than me, while at the same time, naturally getting better at and learning more about scripting.

If I decide to continue, I definitely have a game plan, and your advice is spot on. Also, I really appreciate the respect and openness between JavaScript library developers, just like you expressed here, so thanks for giving me faith about a brighter future, no matter what path I choose.

Let me start of by saying that I’m a member of both the Ext and jQuery teams.

Now, I think you need to look at what your expectations are and then decide whether you want to keep DOMAssistant updated. If your intention was to build something that would help you learn JS & selectors while having the added benefit of helping you in your job, then I think you’ve accomplished what you set out to do. The fact that you have additional support is icing on the cake.

It sounds though, that you’re disappointed that more folks haven’t embraced DOMAssistant while other libs continue to grow and so you need to determine whether your intentions and expectations have changed. If they have, then you need to come up with a concerted plan to get DOMAssistant more exposure. Posting a blog entry or getting an occasional mention in Ajaxian isn’t going to push you ahead. Its hard work and in jQuery’s case, for example, it took John nearly two years of effort to finally get the respect that his work deserved. For Ext, Jack took off nearly a year from work so that he could come out with the best UI framework available.

Honestly, I don’t believe it’s anything to do with your functionality. DOMAssistant looks great. Developers are just fickle and to-date, I’ve still not been able to pinpoint why developers choose specific offerings.

If you really want to make DOMAssistant pervasive, then I would recommend enlisting the help of others and forming a project team. Once in place, come up with a plan to distinguish DA from the pack. If you’re “just like the others” DA will get lost in the pack guaranteed. And contrary to what others are saying, selector speed is *not* going to distinguish you from anyone. All of the libs have tweaked their selector engines to the hilt and throwing yourself into a battle of selectors, in my opinion, is not enough to set DA apart. Try to determine your sweet-spot and build from there. With jQuery, it was file size, ease-of-use and performance. With Ext, is was UI. Prototype was first to market and has Scriptaculous involved. And MooTools has amazing effects and OO.

If you need advice or assistance, let me know. The Ext & jQuery teams are here to help.

Rey
Ext & jQuery Project Teams…

You could pass DOM Assistant on or let others in as an open source project perhaps, I don’t really know the answer to that.

While marketing effort may improve the situation I’d say it would need significant marketing effort and investment. From a business perspective I’d be thinking of something perhaps more of an AJAX Web 2.0 startup style that might generate income.

After all, as much as its fun to do stuff its a lot of fun being paid for it too. Financial security and peace of mind are important. You’ll never get those years back you miss with your children by sitting up running tests on DOM Assistant.

Hope that’s of some advice-like help.

I’ll think this over over the weekend, and make a final decision next week on what I will do, but I have pretty much chosen what it will be. I’ll let you know next week.

One thing that I do want to point out now, though, is that I definitely don’t feel like it’s a chore to me. I’ve done it for my as well as for other peoples’ sake, and up to this point it has just felt fun, learning and challenging (in a positive way).

Don’t give up. Before jquery there was another popular library and before that yet another popular library and before that… Even if you end up with a niche impact we need variety. If we didn’t then we’d all be using IE6.

I’m with others in that I think it would be a good idea to add an effects library to DOMAssistant. As others have said, “eye candy” is what attracts people to use a library. I wrote an AJAX front end for our internal portal, yet users and especially management didn’t see how cool it was because the widgets didn’t fade, or slide in. They thought that AJAX meant a bunch of “cool” effects.

A forms validation plugin would be cool too.

I would also be interested in how DOMAsistant stacks up performance wise with other libraries.

I wish there is a way to pit DOMAssistant against the big three.

There is. Slickspeed is open-source and a breeze to set up. Rob, you should definitely set up a comparison on your server. From my internal tests you smoke other libraries :).

But after that, you are looking for functionality and simplicity. To write code that is fun to write and solves problems in a satisfying way.

The functionality that comes to my mind that might be needed:

- Window/Forms plugin to create modal windows and such. And it really does not take that much code to do it.
- Effects! Maybe something like jQuery to write own custom effects

I will use DomAss in my PHP framework to play around. Will give you some feedback