Favorite Javascript frameworks?

Who's got a favorite and why? I don't usually use a lot of js but I have a project that's going to require me to learn a framework. So whats the best one? Mootools? YUI? JQuery? something else?

Also if anyone has any good resources for learning said favorite framework I would be very interested.

I wasn't a fan of JS libraries for a few years. They all seemed to make simple tasks overly complicated & a lot of times the extra bandwidth required to load the library was just too much, like jumping in a monster truck to go to the next door neighbors house.

In the last year or so I've grown quite fond of jQuery though.

For one, the library is hosted at Google Code & can be linked to in my pages, effectively outsourcing the librarys weight.
http://code.google.com/p/jqueryjs/
If everyone who used jQuery loaded the library from there, it would increase performance of applications on a large scale since visitors browsers would be able to use the cached copy of jQuery they loaded when they visited another site.

For two, I really like the way HTML elements are gathered to work with by using CSS selectors.
http://docs.jquery.com/Selectors

For three, I like the way the event binding is handled.
http://docs.jquery.com/Events

For four, and what is probably a lot of peoples #1, I like how simplified basic AJAX operations are.
For instance, to load the contents of "stuff.xml" into an element with the ID of "one" this is all I would need.


For five, I just like the fact that Google Code and Media Template are providing hosting for these guys.

yeah I've been leaning toward JQuery but wasn't sure about the advantages/disadvantages of each. Jquery seems like one of the more powerful. Is that the general consensus?

I gave up on Prototype, I'd tried it before I tried jQuery. I believe Mootools is an extension of Prototype.

I've heard good things about YUI, but to me it seemed like it would make more sense just to write Java applets than mess with that framework.

Choosing a particular library is really about your personal style and philosophies. For me prototype + scriptaculous is great in the way Javascript is extended. The classy behavior provided by prototype syncs nicely with the way I like to write code so maybe that is why i love it so much .

I would recommend listening to http://www.javascriptworkshop.com/2008/ ... s-podcast/ . In this podcast John Resig gives very unbiased commentary on the libraries/frameworks.

Hey thanks Cipher. I like Resig's stuff, can't believe I missed that one.

I want to study YUI !

++ for jquery...I can attest for its scalability. My company uses it extensively, and it's capabilities reach far beyond those that the examples online show.

I am using http://www.mootools.net - similar to jQuery but faster and more powerful.