Introduction

Before I even start, let me state that I’m a JQuery fan. Ever since I’ve started with JavaScript frameworks I’ve weighed the pros and cons, and trust me there are a lot. You’ll always find people arguing Prototype, JQuery or MooTools. I went with JQuery because it could do all that I wanted with the least amount of bloat. I’m sorry, Prototype may do a hell of a lot, but I don’t think that I could make enough use or that 100 KB to justify it. Plus, Prototype can’t even handle basics on its own without having to piggy back off of script.aculo.us and it’s effects library.

Speed

Now with every new version of a Framework that comes out, this argument comes up again and again. Finally, we have something to put the arguments to rest.

In my personal testing, I’ve found that JQuery 1.21 leads the pack, but only in Internet Explorer. In Firefox it comes in dead last. Does this discourage me? Maybe a lil’ bit. Am I going to stop using JQuery and switch to Prototype? I think not.

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One of the nice things about CakePHP is that it includes ready to use CSS compression. Granted, compressed CSS can be buggy at times, but for the most part it works just fine.

I've always wondered why no one has included something like this for Javascript, since that's usually the bigger culprit when we're talking about document size. I've tried using Minify in the past. However, it took a lot to get it working right. And I really hate hacking stuff just to work with CakePHP. That, coupled with the fact that I'm a lazy bastard, meant that I gave up the Minify train rather quickly.

Mark Story To The Rescue - JSMIN Javascript Helper

At the time, I hadn't heard about the JSMIN library, which does pretty much the same thing the Minify does, but without the CSS. Luckily, Mr. Story had some vision after his Christmas festivities and cake up with a JSMin Helper for CakePHP. This helper works by Minifying the chosen Javascript. This involves stripping unnecessary characters (line breaks, comments, spaces, etc) from the .JS file.

It also includes functionality to cache the resulting files. What more can you ask for?

Usage:

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One thing which I usually find quite annoying is using input boxes in forms for user entered dates. Having the user manually enter date, day, month, year seems so 1997 to me. However in the interest of time, this is what most programmers slap into the web applications simply because it's easier to produce and easier to maintain.

Well here's a handful of solutions that can solve that problem for you. Create user friendly and attractive date entries with these Date Pickers. Some are just normal entries used for basic forms, while others have more database integration.

Some use the jQuery library. Others use mootools or the Yahoo! UI. No matter what your needs, you'll find something here that you can use.

Source: Online Calendars and Date Pickers [Smashing Magazine]

Popularity: 40%

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