Why javascript libraries stink

JavaScript’s is a language everybody loves to hate, and the language which, more than any other in the modern web developer’s toolbox, people will go to insane lengths to avoid writing directly (witness Google Web Toolkit, JavaScript “helpers” in server-side frameworks, etc.).

Which isn’t fair, really, because (as I’ve said many a time) most people don’t actually hate JavaScript the language; they hate the buggy and inconsistent implementations of JavaScript in major web browsers and, to a larger extent, the buggy and inconsistent implementations of the DOM in major browsers.

Which is why as I have said before I do not like and do not advocate the use of JavaScript libraries. At first glance this may seem hypocriticial given you could argue that the LocalHero code repository is a JavaScript library in itself. However as I have said before LocalHero Code is not a library just a collection of useful functions and ways to harmonise browser behaviour. It is not an attempt to change the way the language should behave or abstract it.

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