Best Practices in Javascript Library Design

Last night, I’d the chance to look at John Resig’s talk on the Best Practices in Javascript Library Design.

                This talk explores all the techniques used to build a robust, reusable, cross-platform JavaScript Library. We’ll look at how to write a solid JavaScript API, show you how to use functional programming to create contained, concise, code, and delve deep into common cross browser issues that you’ll have to solve in order to have a successful library. John Resig is a JavaScript Evangelist, working for the Mozilla Corporation, and the author of the book ‘Pro Javascript Techniques.’ He’s also the creator and lead developer of the jQuery JavaScript library and the co-designer of the FUEL JavaScript library (included in Firefox 3).

1. jQuery - that simplifies how you traverse HTML documents, handle events, perform animations, and add Ajax interactions to your web pages.
2. Fuel - Firefox User Extension Library - is a JavaScript Library designed to help developers build extensions using terminology and interfaces that are familiar to them. It will be usable in Firefox 1.5-3.0.

Download jQuery

Download jQuery 1.2.1 (14kb, Minified and Gzipped) Great for production use.

Download jQuery 1.2.1 (77kb, Uncompressed) Great for testing, learning and development.

Download jQuery 1.2.1 (26kb, Packed) For those that can’t Gzip their JavaScript.