Bearfruit

I started writing a long tirade against mootools, and stopped when I realized my points were tantamount to a book treatment. I should seek a publisher.

I haven’t used any framework other than Mootools, but constantly evaluate the options that are available. Mootools is the fastest, most innovative, and technically superior to all the others. But it may not be for long; it has indeed grown stagnant and the recent 1.2 release may not be able to save it. As is, Mootools requires too much dependence upon OOP Javascript fundamentals for it be easily ingested by javascript neophytes (i.e. the vast majority of front-end developers).

The community is substandard. The developers of the framework itself are elitist by association to their egotistical, presumptuous, and prodigal young javascript leader, Valerio Proietti. Collectively, they spend too much time parrying with their own community over their lack of knowledge. I was banned from the forums for bringing up their lack of friendly acceptance, and suggesting an alternate approach to communicating with the public. I suppose you could reason I am disgruntled, but this assertion would not explain why I use MooTools exclusively.

Unfortunately, the project leaders’ insolence and terse contributions to documentation force you to piece together an education on Javascript over a period of months. The framework will flounder unless they take a corporate approach in presenting the framework to the public, build the MooTools brand, and build exhaustive documentation and resources for its potential users, regardless of their skill level.

Take the heretofore unheard-of Sproutcore as an example. Apple adopted it, and put it on the map. Yet still, it has professional appeal out of the gate. It isn’t logical for newcomers, but expect it to do right by its adopters after time is spent in the documentation.