Google Closure & our next meeting
Jesse Hallett
Last week Google released Closure Tools <http://googlecode.blogspot.com/2009/11/introducing-closure-tools.html>. These are the common JavaScript libraries that a lot of Google apps are based on. In short the tools break down into three major pieces.
The compiler rewrites code to make download sizes smaller, like jsmin and YUI compressor. Under the right circumstances it looks like it can produce output that is substantially smaller than YUI compressor's.
Closure Library gives a nicer DOM API and handles cross-browser issues - much like jQuery, Prototype, and others. But it looks like Library also includes a broad range of tools on top of that, including reusable UI components, a unit testing framework, plus namespacing and type checking.
Closure Templates is a system for creating HTML templates that can be rendered on the client side. The same templates can also be rendered on the server side in Java. When used on the client side the templates compile down to dense, but supposedly very efficient, JavaScript code.
I would like to get together to talk about all of these great new toys. There seems to be a lot to cover, so if we could get a few people to look at bits of Closure and report on what they find interesting that would be great.
Our next two regularly scheduled time slots will be very close to major holidays. So I think we are best off rescheduling those meetings. What do people think of having or next meeting in early December? I am thinking that we could go back to our regular date in January. Or another option is wait until January for the next meeting and to get together at the Winter Coders' Social in the meantime.
While we are on that subject; our current meeting schedule has not been revisited since it was instituted a year ago. Are fourth Wednesdays working well for you? Or are there other dates that would be better?
Peter Higgins
>
> Closure Library gives a nicer DOM API and handles cross-browser issues
> - much like jQuery, Prototype, and others. But it looks like Library
> also includes a broad range of tools on top of that, including
> reusable UI components, a unit testing framework, plus namespacing and
> type checking.
>
Closure is nothing like jQuery or Prototype. Prototype extends
primitives providing the most the functionality of Closure, but jQuery
comes nowhere close to even scratching the surface. jQuery is a DOM
library with no concept of Classes, scopes/context, namespaces, or any
of the other 'high points' of JS. Closure is a fork of Dojo 0.4, and
uses Dojo 1.4's selector engine "Acme". The api's are named the same,
some of the code is exactly the same. Closure and Dojo follow the same
philosophies and principles, again, neither of which Prototype of jQuery
fit into.
Regards,
Peter
Jesse Hallett
Cool; thanks for the clarification Peter.
On Nov 10, 2009 5:28 AM, "Peter Higgins" <phig...@gmail.com> wrote:Jesse Hallett wrote: > > Closure Library gives a nicer DOM API and handles cross-browser issues > -...
Aaron Mark Johnson
Hi Jesse,
Sounds like a good topic.
I'd say Winter coder social for december and begin in January.
No preference on day of the month.